MARGAO: The change in political situation in Goa had its impact at Margao where Azad Nagri, a shanty built by Konkan Railway Corporation to rehabilitate the people living in huts in the area, was renamed as Babu Nagri.
When the Konkan Railway project was planned, there were quite a number of huts in the land sought to be acquired for the Margao Railway Station and Deputy Chief Minister Babu Azgaonkar who was then Margao Municipal Councillor and leader of the Gandhi market vendors association demanded that the occupants of those huts be rehabilitated.
KRC acquired land opposite a little away from the proposed railway station and sub divided it into 135 plots to be given to the occupants of the huts who were displaced. However, some citizens belonging to higher caste objected to this proposal and demanded that they be rehabilitated elsewhere with Sao Jose de Areal being the preferred choice.
This led to a massive struggle with morchas and demonstrations during which Babu Azgaonkar and few others were even arrested and following his release the demand to relocate them outside Margao fizzled out and they built their houses there.
As the colony came up and given the fact that Babu Azgaonkar led the struggle, it was unofficially called Babu Nagri and that name remained for quite some. However, after Digambar Kamat quit the BJP and was re-elected as MLA at the by-elections held after he joined the Congress, the name of the colony was changed.
The colony was again unofficially called “Azad Nagri” and what is interesting is that there is no resolution adopted by the MMC about naming this particular colony.
Now that Babu Azgaonkar has become the deputy chief minister overnight the signboard at the colony has been replaced with one calling it “Babu Nagri” and at the Dusshera celebration held there where lunch was served to the occupants, Babu Azgaonkar said the original name has come back.
Alla Baksh, one of the persons who was by the side of Babu throughout the struggle, said the name was changed by Digambar Kamat by using police force to intimidate the people. “The name change was forced upon us and did not come from the heart of the people living here,” he said.
A youth from the colony Abdul Sayad said just as one cannot change one’s father’s name, the name of the colony could not be changed from the one given to it when it was started.
Savio Coutinho who represented this area for a long time said the name change is merely “politics of power”.
