The original landowners of the DefExpo site, the Quitol comunidade and Naqueri youth have also conveyed that they had no objection to the expo.
Rejecting the claims that all neighbouring panchayats were opposing the project, they pointed out that the gram sabhas of Bali, Fatorpa, and Morpilla did not pass resolutions against it.
Meanwhile, former GCCI president Nitin Kunkolienkar has extended support to the expo and called the agitation as an activity of “professional agitators” with the support of politicians for personal gains”.
Addressing the press, Kunkolienkar said, “There is an issue because of politics. Politics that is stopping development has to be stopped by the people as this opposition will finish Goa’s strength to fulfill the employment and monetary needs of the State.”
He continued, “We don’t want to get into a political fight. But there are some professional agitators and they get more attention. The world suffers because of the silence of good people more than the violence of bad people; this fits the Goan scenario today.”
He added, “This was the land that was given for a hotel project. Was there no encroachment on that land back then and wouldn’t it have dislodged the people of that land?”
Fatorpa Sarpanch Sanzil D’Costa stated that their gram sabha had not passed any resolution against the defence expo nor had it raised any point about the same. Similarly, the other panchayats have rubbished the claims that they were passing resolutions against the Defexpo.
Meanwhile, the Quitol comunidade has claimed that it is the owner of the land and that the people opposing the DefExpo were neither from Quitol nor did they have any connection with the village.
“We are completely supporting the Defence Expo and don’t want an industrial estate to come up. If the youth of Quitol get jobs, we will be more than happy,” said Putu Dessai from Quitol.
