MARGAO: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee has finally come out and opposed the Defence Expo in Quitol-Naqueri and has extended their support to the NGO, Orixtt Porjecho Awaaz (OPA), in opposing the Expo.
The GPCC President, Luizinho Faleiro, has declared that the Congress, along with the OPA, will hold village level meetings and also plans to hold a public meeting on February 28 at 3.30 pm at Quitol. The GPCC president has also directed all the block and district level workers of Congress to come out and support the agitation led by the OPA against the Expo.
While addressing a press conference at the GPCC South Headquarters, Luizinho lashed out at the government for suppressing the people’s fundamental rights of speech and demonstration by threatening to file FIRs. “We condemn the move and call it an ‘Anti National’ act of the Government to push the Defence Expo without the permission of the people and the local panchayats,” Luizinho said.
“I have called on to the Congress party to take up the issue at the Parliament and also at the ensuing session of the Goa Assembly and push for a discussion of the issue,” told Faleiro.
“The Army or Navy does not respect the Defence Ministers of the country and this is what I have experienced recently when was working in North East. There is no guarantee that they will respect the Defence Minister on making Quitol as a temporary venue of Defence Expo,” Luizinho alleged.
The Orixtt Porjecho Awaaz has revealed that they have appealed to the taxi owners not to ply the guests of the Defence Expo and have also informed that they are thinking on lines of a legal option to halt the expo proceed.
The Quepem MLA, Babu Kavlekar, has claimed that he is surprised that none of the Government personnel or any Ministers, MLAs are coming out and making people understand about the Defence expo.
“Five months have passed since the agitation begun against the Defence Expo. Sadly, no one from the Government has attempted to come out and explain the plans of the expo to the people. It is unfair on the part of the government not to inform people, panchayat or the local MLA on the project,” Faleiro said.
Faleiro also told the media that according to Right to Information documents the Expo has been proposed to be a permanent venue at the Quitol table top land and there has been no clarity on the land use too.
