“The MPT is not running up to capacity and has already scrapped its mega ‘West of Breakwater’ project, so why does it need a satellite port, and that too, at the mouths of the eco-sensitive River Sal?” And why does it want a bauxite, an iron ore and ‘possibly’ a coal port adjacent to some of the most coveted tourist resorts of the State?” asked UGF President Aashish Kamat.
He further said that the Centre’s desire to expand the MPT had all the markings of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s “real estate racket”, where prime land of ecological and/or touristic importance was first acquired for an unwanted purpose and then locked for another project after money changed hands outside Goa.
“Why is it that a project, whether it is the DefExpo or MPT’s Betul project, is first known and discussed in Delhi and elsewhere, while Goans come to know about it only through newspaper reports? Parrikar, who had once infamously remarked that it was easier to send the Army to Lahore than relocate them out of Panjim, is himself turning out to be the real estate agent of Goa, offering its prime land to the highest bidders,” said UGF.
