Team Herald
PONDA: The Ponda Block Congress Committee on Friday demanded that Union Ayush Minister and Minister for Defence Shripad Naik should make an effort to hand over the major portion of Kranti Maidan land at Ponda, which is under possession of military, to Ponda Municipal Council.
President Arun Gudekar, along with Curti Sarpanch Dadi Naik, Block Secretary Kishore Naik, John Pereira and Congress women leader Achal Verenkar, while addressing the media persons said, “Former Chief Minister Ravi Naik in 1991 made a successful effort to get back around 2,530 sqmtrs of Kranti Maidan land to PMC from military by holding dialogue with then defence minister Sharad Pawar. However, still major portion of around 3,896 sqmtrs land is lying with the military. This land is open space and could be utilised for development of Ponda town.”
“The present Kranti Maidan land in PMC’s possession is falling short to conduct various programmes of national importance such as 15 August, 19 December etc. Besides, Christmas and Ganesh festivals are also celebrated here. There is no space for parking also,” Gudekar said.
“Further in absence of sufficient space in town, the locals are forced to organise public meetings at bus stand which create a lot of hardship to the passengers at the bus stand. Hence, the part of Kranti Maidan land lying in possession of the military should be handed over to the local municipality so that it can be utilised for good purpose, public meetings and national events etc,” he added.
Former chairperson Kishore Naik said, “There is plenty of land with Kendriya Vidyalaya and there was proposal put up by former chief minister Ravi Naik to hand over this land to the military in exchange of Kranti Maidan land. This proposal should be considered afresh by the government.”
When former chief minister (late) Manohar Parrikar became the defence minister the people were hoping that Defence Ministry would hand over the Kranti Maidan land to PMC. However, it could not happen.
“Now since Shripad Naik, who is a local from Ponda, being Minister of State for Defence should take the initiative,” Gudekar said.
