from daijiworld's special correspondent

Panaji, Mar 11: The Congress government in Goa is all set to ruin farmers' lives with their ambitious plans to promote Cricket in the state, which is more famous for football than cricket. Even Goa's cricket team does not fare well in the nationals.

Thivim, a village, 12 kms away from Panaji, has been earmarked for the cricket stadium at the cost of farmers' livelihood. The villagers contend that around 80 farmers' livelihood would be affected with the building of the cricket stadium.

The stadium, with 40,000 capacity, at a cost of Rs 60 crore, is planned by acquiring farmland and reserved forest. Besides, huge orchard land will also be affected with it. The Congress government is trying to lay most of the foundation stones before state legislative assembly elections are declared in the state. The stone is scheduled to be laid some time in the first week of April 2007.

The Goa cricket association, headed by congress minister Dayanand Narvekar, is making all efforts to complete the stadium within two years. For the stadium, the BCCI is likely to give a subsidy of Rs 25 crore.

"We don't want to part with our land for the purpose of the stadium. It's a farmland where we take paddy crop every monsoon," stated a farmer woman vasanti vaingankar, who hopes to take three crops once the Tillari irrigation project is completed. The Tillari canal will run just 100 metres away from the farmland making it more fertile.

Vaingankar and 80 other farmers are resisting 1.3 lac sq metre land acquisition which comprises 60,000 sq metres of agricultural land, 43,000 sq metres of private forest and 20,000 sq metres of orchard.

Thivim residents, who have rallied under banner of Save Thivim Front, are objecting to the cutting of private forest which houses rare variety of birds and a few wild animals. "Early morning, peacocks are seen here. A few foreigners often visit to click pictures," Ladislaus Fernandes, another local said.

The villagers are also questioning the utility of this project. "Goa will get an international cricket match once in two years.... Why do we require this project which will be turn into a white elephant," questioned another local.

The Goa Cricket Association, however, has sought to play down the entire controversy stating that the villagers are agitating to get extra compensation.

"The land acquisition proceedings were  over a year back. We are starting the construction work in first week of April," GCA president Dayanand Narvekar, a heavyweight politician and also cricket official, stated.

He said that "the forest act allows diversification of the forest, which we will do once land is taken up for development."