Punish those in SEZ land allotment: Sancoale meet

HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CORTALIM, DEC 12
The meeting called by the Sancoale villagers on Sunday to decide on the SEZ land allotment fiasco crticised the government handling on the SEZ issue and called for punishment of the guilty.
Speakers demanded that since the land allotment to SEZ promoters have been set aside by the High Court, the government should revert back the land to the original owners.
Other speakers demanded that the government should not allow the SEZ promoters to take the land even for general industrial use and no compensation paid from the state coffers since they (SEZ promoters) had not come with clean hands and had managed to get the land through fraudulent means.
Franky Monteiro and Arvind Bhatikar who also addressed the meeting said that all the guilty involved in the scam should be punished.
Rector of Blessed Joseph Vaz Sanctuary, Fr Erimito Rebelo appealed to the government to allot the land to mull Goenkars residing in the village.
"This can be done through the gram village panchayat by developing plots and handing over them to the native tribes of the village," Fr Rebelo said.
Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) Executive Secretary Fr Maverick Fernandes who spoke about global warming said that coastal areas will be inundated in few years time.
"Water level will rise from 1 meter to 3 meters due to melting of the ice and the people of the coastal areas will have to be shifted on the hills and therefore it is necessary to preserve the hills for future Goan people," Fr Maverick informed.
Touching on other issues concerning the village, Lawrence Fernandes said that the marina which is proposed in the village will destroy the livelihood of the people particularly the fishermen. It will also destroy mangroves which are highly protected habitat, he said.
Fernandes who has worked in the Gulf for decades said that in the Gulf marinas are built in the oceans and not in the back waters (like rivers) and called upon the people to oppose the marina project at all cost.
Sancoale Panch Tulshidas Naik spoke on preserving the environment of Sancoale especially hills which he said should not be given for commercial use.
Later, Seby Fernandes proposed the vote of thanks.