Team Herald
PANJIM: Sensing growing local opposition and serious questions being raised over the manner in which the land for the DefExpo has been allotted to the Defence Ministry, the Secretary Defence Production, Ashok Kumar Gupta, has written to Goa’s Chief Secretary, to ensure that Mr Parrikar’s show case event doesn’t jet jinxed.
In a clever move the Defence Ministry has also sought to delink the DefExpo 2016 with land allotment for a permanent exhibition site, preferring to deal with one battle at a time. The basis of Mr Gupta’s letter was to try and emphasise that the DefExpo constructions would be temporary in nature. At the same time, there is complete silence on the 10,000 square feet runway demanded by Mr Parrikar’s ministry in the sensitive Naqueri area for planes carrying equipment and other vital assets to land. All this is being planned under the garb of all build up for the DefExpo being temporary.
“The DefExpo in Goa is one-time event with temporary structures to be removed on completion of the event,” Ashok Kumar Gupta, Secretary (Defence Production) said in a letter addressed to chief secretary R K Srivastava.
“With regards to allotment of land, this is a different proposition and there can be an arrangement for creating permanent exhibition ground through memorandum of understanding between government of Goa and ministry of defence. Subject to the views of Government of Goa on the matter, we can consider to progress or drop the proposal,” he added.
The State government in principle approved allotment of land for organising the DefExpo from March 28 to 31. There has been strong opposition to the event, and it has been claimed that the land would be allotted to the Ministry on a permanent basis.
“Some media reports have come to the notice of this department wherein certain groups have raised their concerns about the allotment of land for holding DefExpo and Aero Show in Goa. In this regards I would like to mention that since significant preparations have already started and Indian and global defence industry have also been informed about the venue, it is proposed to hold DefExpo in March 2016 in Goa as planned,” Gupta has said in his letter dated December 2, 2015.
He said DefExpo has been misrepresented in certain quarters to create an impression that the land is being given to ministry of Defence on a permanent basis. “The confusion that has been created due to mixing up of DefExpo with the proposal of setting up a permanent exhibition centre,” the secretary said.
“The proposal for DefExpo is an event based proposal. The event will be for four days and all structures shall be temporary in nature. The event will bring an immense benefit to the State in terms of large number of visitors including foreigners visiting here,” he added. The Ministry claims that the event will also be significant for states economy and for the local people residing in nearby areas.
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CM: Decision on permanent venue after this year’s event
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that the decision on development of a permanent exposition venue for the DefExpo will be taken only after the event scheduled in March.
“Government of Goa shall permit usage of the land for holding Defence Expo and Aero shows in the state in March for four-days,” Parsekar said in his note to the Industries Secretary in reply to a communication from the Union Defence Ministry on the issue.
“The decision regarding creation of permanent exposition ground would be taken after the event scheduled in March,” he added.
The Defence ministry has said that holding the DefExpo in March 2016 in Goa may not be linked to the allotment of land for development of permanent exhibition venue and the issue of permanent allotment of land for future DefExpo can be mutually discussed between the Goa government and Defence ministry separately.
