Team Herald
PANJIM/PONDA: The BJP-led government now finds itself isolated on its decision to allot land at Naqueri-Betul for the DefExpo as alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has joined the opposition to the expo and severely criticized it.
Speaking to Herald, MGP’s Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamledar said, “It is quite obvious that giving away 6 lakh square metres of land at Naqueri-Betul to the Union Ministry of Defence is unwarranted, baseless and should be avoided.”
Mamledar has also written a letter to the NGO Generation Next, where he has expressed his displeasure over the government’s move to hand over the GIDC land to the Defence Ministry for hosting the DefExpo.
“It was our election promise to start new industrial estates and in turn generate 50,000 jobs for Goans. Today, the reality is that this vision has been transformed into merely a dream,” the letter dated December 14, 2015, circulated to the media on Monday, states.
The Ponda MLA apprehends that the government may convert the land into a permanent venue for the Defexpo.
“IFFI, which in 2004 was an annual event for that particular year, has today Goa as its permanent venue. Similarly, skepticism arises over the fact that this ‘Defence Air Expo’ as its term has been coined, may also run on the same lines by virtue of which this vast piece of land at Betul may in immediate future be declared as a permanent venue for defence exhibition,” the letter further states.
The MLA has suggested setting up a Food Beverage Park at the site, as was mooted earlier. “But again, all this by taking locals of Naqueri-Betul into confidence,” he adds.
On December 31, 2015, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had announced granting permission to the Defence Ministry to use the GIDC land to hold DefExpo 2016 for four days, but kept open the option of making this a permanent venue for the expo.
