PANJIM: Corlim villagers have planned a major agitation on learning that Syngenta has got the go-ahead from Competition Commission of India (CCI) to sell its manufacturing facility to Deccan Fine Chemicals.
Under the deal, Syngenta India Ltd’s agrochemical manufacturing facility located at Corlim will be acquired by the Visakhapatnam-based company on a slump sale basis.
According to local MLA Pandurang Madkaikar, a joint meeting of panchayat members, including Sarpanch Supriya Kerkar, besides Corlim Forum member Baptist Pereira was held to chalk out the course of action.
“It was decided to hold a public meeting near the Syngenta main gate on Sunday. The meeting will ask the government to exercise its right and buy back the 7.54 lakh sq m of land,” he said.
Madkaikar, as well as the sarpanch and other activists, argued that the original sale deed prevented Syngenta from selling the land, known as Santa Monica, to a third party without giving the original vendor, in this case the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman and the government, the first right to purchase the land.
“The indenture also says that the land cannot be transferred to anybody other than the original purchaser or a subsidiary,” said Madkaikar.
The main grievance of the locals is the health and safety risk posed by chemical companies in the vicinity as any blast or chemical leakage will affect citizens in a 20 kilometre radius. “The property can instead be used to build an IIT or a college or for some other infrastructure,” he said.
Activists expressed doubts over Deccan Chemical’s ability to prevent chemicals from leaking, especially since one of their reactors had exploded at the Visakhapatnam plant in 2014 killing two people and injuring several others.
