From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Goa, Dec 5: The villagers from the village Panchayats of Naqueri – Betul, Fatorpa – Quitol, Velim, Assolna, Ambelim and Khola, under the banner of Orixtt Porjecho Avaz (OPA), a body that has no links to any political party, basically and totally a peoples movement, held a peaceful protest march from the Quepem Cemetery to Quepem Municipal Garden to protest the government decision of allotting the land admeasuring 6,00,000 sq m at Naqueri – Betul to the defence ministry as a venue for Defexpo and Aero Show.
More than 200 villagers, some peoples representatives of the legislature and panchayats along with several concerned citizens from various parts of Goa participated in the peaceful protest. The villagers had a signature campaign and a memorandum was submitted to the deputy collector, Quepem.
Besides great promises of generating employment for the locals by acquiring community lands, the GIDC has done nothing for nearly a decade and is now handing over the land to the Ministry of Defence as a permanent venue for DefExpo which is of no benefit to the villagers. The villagers are also questioning the procedures that were followed in allotting the land to the Ministry of Defence by a mere letter from the Defence Minister to the chief Minister. The government is unclear about the operations to be conducted till date. The local governing bodies were not consulted and were kept in the dark.
The legislators who were present in solidarity with the people assured to demand a special assembly session to discuss this subject. Freddy Agnelo Fernandes, secretary and spokesperson of OPA explained how the government is fooling the people by gifting civilian land for defence use, when the defence minister had earlier campaigned to revert the military land for civilian use. This is a Maha u-turn, he emphasised. He also thanked the people for coming in large numbers and assured the gathering that this was just the beginning of the agitation and that it will be intensified till the voice of the people is heard by the government.