Garbage Vigilantes Strike Goa – Green Group Makes Polluters Pay                              

 Anjuna,Goa – March 29, 2015: Is it the first real step towards the solving the serious garbage problem in Goa? On March 18, 2015, an independent reporter whose wish is to stay anonymous,  received the following information, including documentary photos, showing what a group calling themselves “Clean Goa Warriors” claims are the first reprisals in their continuing campaign to rid the state of the garbage menace. The night before, the CGW staked out over a dozen locations in North Goa popular with what they call “Social Retards” who by night dump their garbage by the sides of the roads. With upwards of 200 members including Goans of all backgrounds, Indians from nine states and Foreigners representing seventeen countries they caught seven miscreants and decided to make an example of four of them including a Catholic and Muslim from Goa, a Hindu hailing from West Bengal and though he had a Karnataka gardener doing his dirty work Lord Michael Heseltine, British businessman and one time Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.The UK Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street refused any comment though two independent sources have verified that the story, and an interview with Lord Heseltine, was quietly suppressed after a flurry of calls from unnamed government officials. A screen capture of the unfinished exposé was delivered to GoaGreg.com and has been circulating on various social networking sites. The photo shows Heseltine being interviewed on the garbage strewn lawn of the Maldiva Residency, a Dona Paula mansion, owned by Michael DeSouza, a close friend of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Others captured and punished for dumping household trash include family members of wealthy Muslim trader Mahmud Ben Ahmed, patriarch of one of the oldest  Muslim families in Goa, tracing their ancestry back to the time when the Delhi Sultanate invaded Goa in the early 14th century. Their home on the outskirts of Anjuna village was stinking and swarming with flies by high noon after the entrance to the house was blocked by garbage. Ben Ahmed cried vowing to join the Warriors “…in cleaning up the most beautiful state in India.”

Totally unrepentant was Lazarus Mascarenhas of Moira who was caught along with his two sons Joseph and Felipe dumping several large white bags of waste from their “Gorgeous Goa” restaurant. The contents of the bags included all types of unseparated garbage including recyclable glass, plastic, tetrapaks, wet waste and several dead rats. Mr. Mascarenhas is said to have screamed from the second story of his massive, though withering Portuguese house, “I don’t care. My peons will clean it and it’ll be back where it belongs tonight.” He claims to have called the police, but Atmaram Deshpande of the North Goa Superintendent’s office denied they were contacted. None of Mr. Mascarenhas’ neighbors report seeing any men in uniform or representatives of the local government.

The final target of the “Clean Goa Warriors” strike was Nikhil Chakravorti of Kolkata suburb of Salt Lake. Though he was only caught throwing two medium sized plastic bags from his scooter (GA03AA6147) into the Aswem nullah the CGW covered the dunes in front of the beach facing “Blue Guest House” where Mr. Chakravorti is the manager. All guests demanded their money back and moved out before the 10 am checkout. The soft spoken Chakravorti continuously shook his head repeating, “what can we do?” When questioned he replied, “Years we’ve been waiting for the panchayats, but government seems uninterested and soon tourism in Goa will die. People will go where the place is still beautiful.”

In their statement the CGW says, “In times of chaos, when leaders are incapable or unwilling, when selfish, unthinking and shortsighted individuals carelessly act against the greater good of the people and violate our dear Mother Nature, then it is the right, even the duty, of concerned citizens to act against the criminal behavior by wrongdoers and the leaders who have created the failed ecosystem where our future is in danger. Just as the American colonists, by what the British government considered an act of terrorism, declared their freedom by throwing English tea into Boston Harbor, we promise to disturb and distress the dirty