BICHOLIM: Tension is brewing in the border areas of Sal in Bicholim and Dodamarg with a section of youth from Dodamarg on Sunday demanding that the taluka be merged with Goa.
“We strongly object to the demand that Dodamarg be merged with Goa. When the Opinion Poll was held it was already decided that no area will be included or deleted from the State. So the question is already solved.” Suresh Parab, a resident of Sal informed Herald.
“We want Goa as it is and it should not add any of the neighbouring talukas. Already we have so much of unemployment and if Dodamarg is merged with Goa what should our children do,” asked Soma Raut adding that the residents of Sal have strongly objected to any such move.
They feel that people from Dodamarg want to join Goa just because of several facilities provided by the government. “It is very backward and Goa government cannot provide facilities to us and how is it going to satisfy Dodamarg, which is a huge taluka,” questioned Soma.
“We don’t want any tension in this border area and government should think about this and solve this issue,” Mukund Raut demanded and appealed to the government not to “convert” Sal into another Kashmir and threatened to oppose any such move.
Meanwhile, a special meeting was held at Dodamarg to discuss this issue and over a thousand youth from the area attended.
They claimed that their MLA and government have not taken up any development and that is the reason they have demanded that Dodamarg be merged with Goa.
“The meeting was convened with the sole demand that Dodamarg be merged with Goa. Dodamarg has always been ignored by the government on political front, employment or any other front,” Ramchandra Thakur informed media persons after the meeting.
“Maharashtra government is totally ignoring us and until Dodamarg is not merged with Goa we will continue with the agitation,” Thakur warned. “Most people are in favour of this merger and today some people tried to crush the agitation but we would stand by this demand till Maharashtra government fulfils our demand,” Thakur stated.
Yaibhav Inamdar, a youth from Dodamarg said, “All this is done to inform Maharashtra government about our presence. This is a demand from most youth who are frustrated. We have decided to approach Maharashtra leaders and if they cannot solve our problems at least they should merge this taluka with Goa”.
The special meeting held in a temple at Dodamarg witnessed commotion between two groups with one supporting the demand while the other Shiv Sena group opposing the same. The commotion ended up in a fight wherein police had to intervene and stop the meeting.
“We are opposed to the merger and assure that the local MLA would visit the area soon and resolve the issues,” Shiv Sena taluka chief Bahurao Dhuri informed.
