Velim locals oppose land acquisition for fish mill, ice plant

Velim locals oppose land acquisition for fish mill, ice plant  
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 6
Fisheries department move to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 square meters at the Cutbona fishing jetty has come in for strong opposition from the Velim gram sabha on Sunday.
Strongly opposing the proposal, agitated Gram sabha members asserted that the government should immediately drop the land acquisition proposal in order to set up a fish mill and an ice plant.
Members said the villagers would oppose tooth and nail acquisition of Khazan, cultivable land for the industrial purpose, and adopted a resolution asking the government to leave the land in question for the farming community.
Incidentally, this is the second time that the proposal to acquire 30,000 square meters of land came in for opposition at the Velim gram sabha.
Sarpanch Renny Caeiro said the Panchayat body would soon convene a special meeting to discuss the issue and sought views of the gram sabha vis-à-vis the proposal.
Gram sabha member Dr Arvind Almedia demanded to know whether the government has carried out any study over the nature of land sought to be acquired for the proposed fish mill and ice plant.
Another gram sabha member said the proposed acquisition of land is certainly not for a public purpose. “This proposal appears to have been mooted only to benefit a small section and not public as a whole. People  in Velim still have no regular water supply  and there is no basic infrastructure to meet the requirements of the local population”, asserted Ramona Almeida.
She demanded to know how the government can have a fish mill and ice plant when the fisheries department is on record saying that there’s a decline in the fish catch. “If there is a fish decline in the state, what is the purpose of this proposed industry in a mini fishing jetty at Cutbona”, she demanded to know.
The gram sabha members also raised serious concerns over the rise in malaria cases in and around Cutbona jetty inhabited by migrant labour. “We have asked the health department and the Panchayat to initiate strict against the migrant labour working at the jetty without the mandatory health cards”, she said, adding that the concerned authorites should maintain a close vigil at the jetty on the malaria front in view of the ensuing monsoons.