29 May 2013  |   12:00am IST

Cutbona land acquisition process dropped

The government has finally dropped the controversial land acquisition proceedings to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 sq mts for the proposed fish meal plant and Cutbona jetty expansion.

TEAM HERALD 

[email protected]

MARGAO: The government has finally dropped the controversial land acquisition proceedings to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 sq mts for the proposed fish meal plant and Cutbona jetty expansion.

Directorate of Fisheries Sharmila Monteiro has written a letter to the Velim panchayat informing the sarpanch about the government decision to drop the land acquisition proceedings, which was earlier allowed to lapse following intervention by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar after Velim villagers protested over the move.

Velim Sarpanch Melvyn Sanches told Herald that the letter written by the Fisheries Director was placed at the Sunday gram sabha to inform the members about the government decision to drop the controversial land acquisition proceedings. 

Last year, the villagers took to the streets demanding immediate scrapping of the land acquisition proceedings. The sustained agitation led to an interaction between the CM, Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado and Velim MLA Benjamin D’Silva, finally resulting in scrapping of the land acquisition proceedings.

In the meantime, the fate of the project report compiled by a West Bengal-based consultant recommending a host of fisheries-related projects at the Cutbona fishing jetty has been literally dumped in cold storage.

Sources in the Fisheries Department informed that most of the projects mooted in the consultancy report may not see light of the day for want of land to implement the projects.