TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: It is not just the Greenfield international airport that is planned at Mopa in North Goa, but the area is reeling under the onslaught of massive projects such as sports city, cyber city, golf course, hotels and widening of national highway, as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) feasibility report, claimed the anti-Mopa protestors on Saturday.
“The so called development in the name of airport will completely destroy North Goa,” the members of Mopa Vimantall Piditt Xetkari Samiti’ alleged. Countering its rival organization from Pernem, the Samiti said that Mopa airport is not feasible for Goa and the existing Dabolim airport is sufficient to cater to the requirements of the State.
“All efforts would be put in to ensure that Mopa airport does not come up,” Samiti secretary Sandip Kambli said. He said that around 45 lakh sqm of land covering three villages ~Varkhand, Chandel and Cansarvarnem, which government plans to acquire as additional land for Mopa airport, is still with the farmers, who will make sure that it is not handed over.
“It is not development of Pernem Taluka but basically a land scam,” he said adding ‘State could face Uttarakhand like situation if the airport and other development come up along the Mopa plateau, which is part of Western Ghats’.
Kambli said that the farmers are being oppressed by politicians and State government, including the erstwhile Congress government. He said that the present government is pushing the acquisition process through hurriedly, even though it is being hotly debated by the public and ignoring the fact that the matter is sub-judice.
He said much of the land had been acquired by paying those who own the land but are now living elsewhere and not the farmers who are still cultivating it. “The money has been released to the people. Rs 60 per sq mtr to the owner of the land and Rs 25 sq mtr to tenants,” he said objecting to the land acquisition and award.
Taking a dig at the People for Mopa International Airport (PFMIA), Kambli alleged that the front is backed by some vested interests and politicians. PFMIA has demanded Friday that government should declare Mopa as only international airport and hand over Dabolim to the Navy.
