TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The blame game about the Dabolim airport parking missing land has begun with those involved in the denotification of the land either passing the buck or giving excuses, to justify the turn of events.
Former Revenue Minister José Philip D’Souza who was party to the decision to de-notify the land falling in Survey No. 8/1 of Dabolim village blamed the Chicalim comunidade for telling him the land is theirs.
“The de-notification of the (Bernard) Costa land was done as at the time, the government had identified a chunk of land little above 70,000 sq.mtrs. The comunidade had told us to use this land. The Revenue department had processed the file for acquiring the land. I don’t know what happened after that, why the land was not acquired,” D’Souza said.
Herald had reported yesterday how the so called 70,000 sq. mtrs of land “available and meant for parking” was actually Navy land that the government somehow believed or was led to believe was theirs or could be acquired by government but which is now clear isn’t really available.
Former deputy Speaker Mauvin Godinho, who was also party to the decision, was not available for a fresh comment, however, defending himself in the assembly earlier this year, Godinho too said he had agreed to the denotification only after he was convinced of “other” land being available.
“He (Bernard Costa) showed me an alternate land, much bigger in size for parking (The same encumbered 70,000 sq.mtrs). I put it up before government, the final decision was of the government,” Godinho had said.
