Land acquisition at Cutbona sans specific purpose haunts officials

Land acquisition at Cutbona sans specific purpose haunts officials
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, AUG 16 
The process to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 square metres at Cutbona Jetty sans any specific “public purpose” has come to haunt the authorities.
For, this is perhaps the first time the government has published Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act without making clear the purpose behind acquiring the land at the Cutbona Jetty.
Ask the Land Acquisition Officer, Deputy Collector, Margao for the lapse and he pushed the blame on the acquiring department, ie the Fisheries Department for not specifying the public purpose.
Land Acquisition officials pointed out that the office received the proposal for land acquisition of 30,000 square metres of land at the Cutbona Jetty sans the public purpose.
“Since no public purpose was mentioned in the land acquisition proposal, the land acquisition office notified the proposal minus the public purpose”, remarked an official.
Incidentally, even the Fisheries Department appears confused over the exact purpose for which the land is being acquired. Fisheries Minister, Joaquim Alemao is on record saying the land is being acquired for the purpose of setting up a fish meal plant.
Sources in the know, however, pointed out that fisheries officials have told the land acquisition office that the land will be used for the purpose of extension of the existing fishing jetty at Cutbona.
In fact, when Herald contacted Fisheries Minister, Joaquim Alemao over the fact that the land acquisition notification is silent on the public purpose, he categorically stated that the land in question is being acquired for the purpose of a fish meal project.
Says Velim Civic and Consumer Forum Convenor, Ramona Almeida: “We have given 15-day deadline to the Velim Panchayat to convene a meeting with the Land Acquisition Officer and the Director of Fisheries on the issue”.
In fact, at the Sunday meeting held at Velim, villagers have unanimously resolved to take to the streets if the government fails to come up with the “public purpose” as they charged the Fisheries Department for trying to bulldoze the fish meal project despite opposition from the local populace.