Manohar Parrikar has very firmly fit himself into the shoes of the Defence Minister. He has done it so snugly that he is singing a different tune regarding the amount of land the defence forces have occupied in Goa to the detriment of Goa’s development needs. In a shocking decision, he has literally ordered the Government of Goa to allot land to the tune of 150 acres or 6 lakh square metres, almost one tenth the size of the Mopa airport, for the Defence expo (Defexpo) and Aero India air shows, to display the might and the grandeur of air power.
Not surprisingly the very same GIDC, which is struggling to find land for investment projects, and has failed to unlock the land illegally occupied by SEZ promoters, has decided to approve this land gift to the Defence Minister, who is functioning like the super Chief Minister of Goa, when he is officially, a Member of Parliament from Lucknow, a place he has never visited after filing his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha.
Of course the usual arguments after Herald has reported this story in this edition will be that it’s sacrilege to even think of questioning any largesse to the Honourable Defence Minister. After all won’t the Defence Airshow increase the prestige of Goa and in turn get visitors? Won’t there be after parties where deals worth hundreds of billions be struck and won’t the defence expo bring is so many manufacturers and buyers? The answer to all of the above is yes. And the questions that follow are these: What will all this do for the long term economy and jobs for Goa? And does it have to be done on scarce land on which industries, preferably manufacturing ones?
On one hand the Government of Goa is doing backroom deals with erstwhile SEZ promoters against whom the High Court of Goa has ruled that they usurped plots in a “a manner not known to law” to get back some of their illegally occupied land. The government has stooped so low that it is asking discredited industrialists to part with only 70% of the land which they have illegally occupied and keep 30% of it to set up industries, albeit according to GIDC norms. We are sorry we have to be blunt about this. This is a case of two sets of thieves negotiating on a property they have stolen from the common man of Goa
While the state struggles to free land for industries and other purposes, it is giving away land to the Defence Ministry when Defence is already in possession of more than 1600 acres of land in Goa and refuses to give even a centimetre, not even for a taxi bay at the new Dabolim airport, which the Ministry of Civil Aviation is desperately seeking.
How much of land does Manohar Parrikar need for his Defence Ministry? He is the same man who said that the Defence Ministry is the biggest land grabber in Goa. So has he now become the captain of land grabbers?
Let Air shows and Defence expos happen in Goa. There is enough land available to the Navy for grand exercises of this sort, land on which it builds buildings as tall as ten stories while lesser civilian mortals the Dabolim and Vasco areas have myriad restrictions.
On the other hand the Navy (which is the principal Defence wing in Goa) owes Goa land. It needs to free land in the heart of Panjim for parking and of course at Dabolim where there is a full-fledged new airport functioning without any parking.
Sadly Mr Laxmikant Parsekar behaved like a stooge when the Defence Minister wrote asking for land for his air shows. What really must have happened was that he would have received orders from Mr Parrikar to do it. The correspondence was merely a formality. But should we be surprised. Were any of you thinking that Mr Parsekar would behave like a Chief Minister of Goa first and tell the Union Defence Minister and MP from Uttar Pradesh that ‘Sir, give back our land which you have and which we need and we will consider your request for land for your air shows and expos”. If you were surprised at the Chief Minister bending over backwards to please his former and now de-facto boss, please do a reality check.
