But, this agricultural landscape of the taluka is set to change when the Mopa airport becomes functional. The airport construction may have faced a setback with Supreme Court ruling on the Environmental Clearance for the project, but that may not be for long. And, for the largely agriculture-oriented taluka, of whose a major chunk of the population is involved in farming and cultivation the news will not be good.
The story of those residents of Mopa and the surrounding areas who have been displaced is heart wrenching. They were primarily farmers and have now been displaced. As one of the Dhangar community members who lost his land to the airport project put it, “We have already lost what we had created in the past so many years. Our agricultural crops have disappeared without us receiving a single penny for the cultivation. We were completely dependent on the plantations. We are now idle and have nothing to do. The area which we owned before was huge compared to what we are given now after displacement.”
It is not just that the land acquired for the airport project has displaced families, including those of the dhangar community for whom agriculture is the only trade they know, it has also affected a number of others in the taluka who have been dependent on agriculture. For many of them, the land acquisition for the airport has wrenched their only known source of income and the compensation of a job for one member of the family at the airport is hardly consolation. Worse, is the apathy that the politicians have shown to the fight that the Mopa Vimantalvidit Xetkari Samittee has been putting up against the airport. There has been no response to their demands, not even to their sufferings.
Airports today are the main hubs of any trade and transport activity. The area around an airport cannot and will not remain isolated from the related development that such a hub brings. Yes, the airport will bring in development and jobs, but what sort of development what sort of jobs may not be easy to fathom at this point of time. There already are, however, indications that Pernem could well be transforming into a whole new township in the not too distant future.
The development of Pernem is in the making. The now lovely rural landscape, is soon to transform to a township of concrete. The request for qualification document on Mopa had proposed the provision of a land parcel of approximately 381 acres (over 15 lakh sq mts) adjoining the airport for commercial development by the concessionaire to increase the viability of the project, and stated that the FAR for this land could be relaxed up to four depending on the type of use. What this effectively means is that the land could be used for housing, commercial or industrial activity, changing the taluka’s countryside completely.
Is this what the residents of today’s Pernem want? The lure of jobs and a confirmed salary at the end of the month does ring well to the ears at this present time, but the cost of that would possibly be a lot more to the people of the taluka and the State. There is also no guarantee that the jobs will go to the people of the taluka or to Goans. Can job reservation be assured? If the residents of the land acquired have been displaced today, then the rest of the people could well prepare for a displacement in the future, when the development that the airport attracts could change the face of the taluka.
