PANJIM: Four people have been stripped off their land titles, from land amounting to over 2 lakh square metres (2,14,465 sq metres), one tenant on his private land had his 8600 square metres of land seized without a single notice as the government moved in for the Chief Minister’s pet project the Electronic city, in Tuem, a part of the Chief Minister’s constituency. This man, Amarnath Naik, protesting against the forcible takeover of his land was sent to a police lock up. Yet no one in the government is uttering a word.
Herald exposed the story on Saturday October 24 and followed it up in its Review section the next day.
The chief minister has refused to take calls from this reporter since the story broke. The Deputy Chief Minister, who is the Revenue Minister is vague in his reply and unsure if the land was acquired after following all legal provisions and Info-Tech Corporation of Goa Ltd chairman Subash Phaldesai dodges questions by saying that the matter is “sub judice”.
For the Electronic City project the government has so far allegedly illegally taken over, or is in the process of taking over (in couple of cases), around 3,08,625 sq mtrs of land in prime forested areas.
