PANJIM: Strongly condemning the State government’s move to grant six lakh sq mts of land to the Defence Ministry on a permanent basis, Congress’ Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Shantaram Naik on Saturday charged Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar with grabbing land at a time when Goa is pleading for Special Status for protection of its limited land resources.
Herald on Saturday had exposed how the Government had directed Goa Industries Development Corporation (IDC) to allocate 150 acres (6lakh sq mts) of land to the Defence Ministry at Naqueri-Betul in Quepem taluka, on a permanent basis for holding Defexpo and Aero India shows.
In a press statement, Naik has said that while no efforts are being made by Parrikar to allot substantial land at Dabolim to the Airport Authority for further expansion and upgradation of the International airport, more land is being allocated to the Defence Ministry, having no benefit to State.
“It is well known that there is a scarcity of land in Goa, and therefore, the State is not encouraging big industrial units to be established. In the past, Goa has also opposed Special Economic Zones (SEZ) whose promoters were virtual land grabbers and further the State is also pleading for amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution to make special provisions for the State to protect its land,” Naik said.
“It is shocking that all such grabbing of Goa’s prime land by the Defence Ministry should now be done at the instance of Defence Minister (Manohar Parrikar), who is himself a Goan,” he said, adding that the Defence Ministry had already usurped hundreds of acres of land in the State in the past without land acquisition immediately after Liberation.
The Congress MP said it was shocking for Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister, who in the past had gone on record against handing over more land to Central Government agencies, to seek to appropriate large tracts of land especially when the State was facing a land crunch.
He also accused the Indian armed forces of making attempts to ‘grab land’ to build residential enclaves and sought a probe into the issue. “The Defence Ministry will now establish big colonies in Naqueri, for their staff to grab the land in the name of their new project, in the same way they have done at the Dabolim Airport,” he added.
