Forget cricket, Thivim farmers cry for water to irrigate fields
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, April 11
It’s cricket versus farmers in Thivim with protesting land owners asking for water to irrigate their paddy fields rather than being a proud host of several cricket matches.
“What we farmers are going to earn from cricket matches? We don’t want to host IPL… if they think that our land is barren then provide us some water so that we can sow the seeds and harvest the paddy,” Uday Malwankar, a farmer from Thivim village said.
He said that the farmers in the village were forced to keep their paddy fields barren because there is no water.
“We used to cultivate these fields annually till few years back when there was no proper rain and now we are waiting for Tillari irrigation project for irrigating our fields,” Malwankar on behalf of Thivim farmers said.
Malwankar along with others – Dnyaneshwar Vaingankar, Baburao Kerkar and Gorakhnath Bandodkar – were in Panjim to attend the special meeting conveyed by Goa Bachao Abhiyaan (NGO) to listen to the views of respected villages where there has been illegal acquisition of land.
“We have refused to part with our paddy fields. We have been fighting against the stadium project for almost half a decade now. The government had given up on the project but suddenly from out of blue, the project is reactivated,” the farmer added.
Malwankar informed in the meeting that the farmers were offered a compensation of Rs five per sq metres. However, the proposal has been recently rejected by them when they were called by district administration to sign a document.
While making a presentation at the meeting, Savio D’Souza, a local activist pointed out that apart from paddy fields there is a huge forest area with rich flora and fauna in it.
“The issue is not just of paddy field. More than 5,000 trees are going to be felled for this project and the numbers have already been put up on the tress for cutting,” D’Souza added.
Total 1.30 lakh sq mts land is proposed to be acquired for the stadium project by Goa Cricket Association, which includes 43,000 sq mts forest, 25,000 sq mts paddy fields and 60,000 sq mts as orchard, he adds in the presentation.
D’Souza said that GCA claims of acquiring the said land but till date not a single farmer is been compensated.
When asked, GBA convenor Sabina Martins said that since the proposed stadium falls in eco sensitive zone, the state government should conduct a proper study of all the aspects before going ahead with the project.
The cricket stadium which is a part of Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) initiative to construct cricket infrastructure across the country has already received a principal approval from the state government.
