GFDO added that the CM should understand that this decision would have extremely serious ramifications on the lives and livelihood of the Quitol villagers.
“It is highly undemocratic and dictatorial of the CM to threaten an FIR against the villagers when they came out to demonstrate their opposition to this arbitrary and underhand deal, which goes against the spirit of local governance enshrined in the Indian Constitution,” said Fr Eremito Rebello, GFDO convenor.
GFDO has said that threats will not stop Goans from protecting their land from being turned into a marketplace for weapons.
“Despite the CM flexing his muscles against his own people, whose interests he is supposed to look after, the people of Goa stand by the villagers of Quitol and vow to oppose tooth and nail this unjustified land grab by the Defence Ministry in connivance with the Goa Government,” said Rebello.
GFDO referred to Parsekar’s recent statement that ‘the Defexpo will be held for four days and structures will be erected on temporary basis and will be removed after the closing ceremony’ and compared it to Parrikar’s letter to the Goa Government seeking a “permanent” venue in a coastal area, with a 10,000 metres runway for the Defexpo. He stated that this totally exposed the CM’s “hollow claim”.
He continued, “It is shocking that as the representative of the Goan community, Parsekar failed to function in a transparent manner and did not even try to explain to the local people why it was so important to give such a large parcel of land to the Defence Ministry for the Defexpo, which has been functioning very smoothly so far at its traditional venue of Pragati Maidan in Delhi. This is ironic, considering that the Defence Minister himself, as Goa’s CM kept making indignant noises about the disproportionate amount of land cornered by the Defence forces in tiny Goa, and vowing not to part with any more land to the Defence Ministry.”
GFDO added that Goa is a peaceful state and had peacefully acceded to the Defence Ministry taking over its existing airport, a number of islands, and large pockets of land in Bambolim, Cavelossim, Panjim and other parts of Goa.
“However, the people of Goa are compelled to draw the line at their peaceful land being used by foreign companies to display and sell their weapons of mass destruction,” said Rebello.
