Just like the IFFI the duo of Parrikar and Parsekar are plugging to hold the DefExpo in Goa at Betul and talking about the advantages it would bring Goa apart from enhancing the number of tourists. The talk is almost as if it is a tape-recording from 2004 except IFFI is replaced by DefExpo.
Nothing like that is going to happen and year by year the locals will watch outsiders and foreigners sit on their land, with no jobs to the locals and it will be difficult to get rid of these outsiders.
The first thing about the DefExpo is that if Pragati Maidan is being renovated, the home of the DefExpo, then there is a vast amount of land in the neighbouring states of Haryana, UP and Rajasthan where they can be accommodated. Why come to Goa? Goa has no defence industries worth the name except maybe Goa Shipyard so there are no concurrent benefits for local industry to tie up with any of the exhibitors coming for the DefExpo. The locals have been up-in-arms seeking the development of basic infrastructure at Betul and development of an industrial estate. With that at least industry could think of coming to Betul and thus the possibility of job creation could be thought of. Instead of doing that the Defence Minister and the CM are bent upon steamrolling the DefExpo in Betul.
Tomorrow if anything goes wrong then these same leaders will throw up their hands claiming that their intentions were good but it turned out not as per their expectations. The CM has also been saying that the land is being given only for a year. Nothing like that is going to happen since even for holding the DefExpo only for one year there is going to be spending in getting the site ready in terms of topography and landscaping, making of roads, arrangement of electricity and water. The question is who is going to spend for this the Central Defence Ministry or the Goa government? If it is the latter that is going to be another dunce cap fitted on the CM’s head to add to the IFFI one.
Once the site is made ready and if it is not used in later years then the whole thing is a waste but if the Goa government and the CM are smart then they would have the DefExpo only for one year, get the Centre to put in the infrastructure and then convert it later into an industrial estate. This model should suit both the DefExpo and the locals at Betul.
