Demand halt to land acquisition for power station
MARGAO, OCT 31
The Loutolim gram sabha on Sunday strongly objected to the expansion of the Verna Industrial Estate and proposed acquisition of land admeasuring 1.44 lakh square meters by the government to set up a 220/33 KV power station to met the needs of the industrial estate.
Maintaining that the land in question mostly belong to private land owners, agitated gram sabha members directed the Panchayat body to write to Power Minister and local MLA Alexio Sequeira to use his good office to stop the acquisition for the proposed sub station and stop further expansion of the Verna Industrial Estate.
The members recalled that the local MLA had recently voiced concerns about the ill effects faced by the locals in the functioning of the industries at the industrial estate.
The gram sabha pointed that the Loutolim village is already crumbling under the devastation caused by the existing industrial estate in terms of environment damage, depletion of water table and population.
The gram sabha also voiced serious concerns regarding the increasing illegal shipyards and dockyards operating along the banks of river Zuari from Rassaim to Borim bridge. The members pointed out that these illegal shipyards have been expanding their illegal activities in low lying tenanted paddy fields depicted as agricultural zone in the Regional Plan 2001 over the years without necessary conversion sanads and approvals from competent authorities in complete violation of CRZ regulations as well as TCP and Panchayat regulations.
Members were sore that these illegal shipyards have encroached deep into the river reducing the mouth of River Zuari and lamented that complaints made to the authorities over the years have fallen on deaf ears.
After much discussions, the gram sabha directed the Panchayat body to immediately act upon the letter dated 14/10/2010 from GCZMA and issue stop work orders to all the illegal shipyards operating in Loutolim village and carry out site inspection as directed at the earliest and take appropriate action as per law to close down all the said illegal shipyards operating.
The meeting witnessed heated arguments with the Sarpanch as members grilled him for failing to withdraw the fake draft regional plan 2021 illegally submitted to the TCP department with a fake outward number. The gram sabha insisted that the Sarpanch name the persons involved in preparing the said fake draft RP 2021 plan and unanimously resolved to ask the Sarpanch to immediately withdraw the fake draft regional plan submitted to the TCP and also to withdraw all subsequent supporting correspondence made to the authorities.
