“We will not allow Mopa airport to be a reality. I won’t allow a single stone to be moved from the land where the airport is proposed,” he said at a media briefing to announce formation of ‘Airport Victims Forum’ led by his political party in association with NGO Outlook For Social Change and the affected farmers from the region.
The forum has members like Mopa Vimantal Pidit Shetkari Samiti’s Sandeep Kambli and NGO Outlook for Social Change’s national convener AK Tripathy among others and demanded a CBI inquiry tagging the controversial project as a major scam. The members have drafted a memorandum to submit to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
“If you do not immediately order the concerned officials to expeditiously file government response with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the matter filed by Federation of Rainbow Warrior’s we will be left with no option but to seek legal remedies to safeguard the future of Goa due to mala fide decisions being taken by the current State leadership under you (CM),” the memorandum states. The forum also suggested converting Mopa into a model ‘Make In Goa’ project on lines with Make In India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pacheco said the government should stop forcing people to accept the project against their wishes. Kambli, who has been leading the agitation since the project’s initial stages, said, “The airport will have to be constructed over our dead bodies.”
“We are with the CM provided he assures that there won’t be any airport at Mopa,” he added, a remark seconded by Tripathy who called it a Rs 5,500 crore scam. He said the project will have huge environmental impact on the State which is likely to witness rise in temperatures.
“We will fight till the last moment of our life. I find nothing has been done by the BJP. The airport is coming up only to help some corporates,” Pacheco said.
The NGO has challenged the CM to come clean on the project by giving 65 per cent stake in the special purpose vehicle to Mopa Vimantal Pidit Shetkari Samiti, ensuring minimum equity clause of Rs 1,500 crore by short listing bidders and filing a response in NGT in a case filed by the concerned group instead of adopting ‘wasting tactics’.
