Even though the RFQ has been floated, the Mopa war is still on. In this fight between what has basically become a fight between Salcete and North Goa what actually escapes the media glare is that people who have sacrificed their land have to get fair compensations.
According to people in the area today the land rate has jumped to around Rs 1500 per square metre from the past when it was as low as Rs 100. However, the people on whose land the airport is supposed to come up have been given only Rs 33 per square metre as compensation. The land encompasses 5-6 villages. Also according to the Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar though the compensation package has been cleared for all, 90 percent of the amount is still in the government treasury as the documentation is not in proper order
hence another blot on the whole Mopa issue.
Another small section, the Mopa Vimantall Piditt Xetkari Samiti, an NGO has opposed the land acquisition at Mopa, and the matter is being heard in the Supreme Court. The former Congress MP and former GPCC President John Fernandes terms the Mopa airport
project as a land scam and points out that the airport will not come up, likening it to the Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat. But Devendra Prabhudessai of
the Pro Mopa lobby says that the
airport is needed for development
of the state even as he is clear
that the government has to enhance
the compensation to at
least Rs 400 per square mtr.
According to the Prabhudessai
the compensation is for approximately
500 to 600 people who
are the majority shareholders. He
also added that the “land was not
being cultivated for 35 years; and
is now barren. Even at that time
people used to cultivate mostly
Nachini once a year. Very little
paddy was being cultivated.”
Fernandes has gone on record
saying that the airport project
“reeks of a scam, where huge
amounts of money are expected
to be given to politicians as kickbacks,
as land is made available
for a song.”
“A major flaw in the international
airport is the absence of a
taxing way on the civilian side of
the runaway. It is akin to a huge
building without a staircase,” Fernandes
argued.
But Prabhudessai is clear on
one point: “However, I would
once again like to state that compensation
is because it is ancestral
land and they are sacrificing it
for development.” And he adds:
“What is the opposition is talking
about this being agriculture land
is not true. This is just to make
an issue.”
According to one of the pioneers
of the movement, former
SP Apa Teli, it is not important to
have the aiport at Mopa, if people
from South Goa want, they can
have it at Margao or Benaulim.
“But we need another airport,”
he says, adding, “If the people of
Goa do not want the state to be
developed, then we should stick
to Dabolim.”
And so the war continues….
