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Convenor of Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) Dr Oscar Rebello has been nominated
for CNN-IBN's Indian of the Year Award 2007 in public service category
Vote for him at:
http://www.cnnibnindianoftheyear.com/publicservice_voting_new.php
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To Goanet -
You have to hand it to this Congress govt. The scams they
have coming down the pipeline are unending. Today the
GMAS was invited by Babu Kavalekar (MLA from Quepem
and Chairman of the GIDC) to attend a presentation on the
proposed Food Park at Betul-Quitol. Several GMAS
representatives were in attendance - Matanhy Saldanha,
Soter D'Souza, Ajay Pereira, Gorakhnath Kerkar, N.S. Dumo etc.
We were first walked through a PowerPoint presentation on
the proposal prepared for the GIDC at a price of 15 lakhs.
It was so amateurish and sloppy as to be unbelievable. I
could have whipped out a more credible report in a couple
of hours for the price of a meal at Riorico. The presentation
was followed by a vigorous interrogation of Mr Kavlekar and
Mr Palekar (MD of GIDC) about all aspects of the project by
several members of GMAS.
GMAS has summarized its position on the proposed Food
Park based on the outcome of this meeting and released it
to the Press. The statement is attached below.
A couple of photographs of the meting this morning at
the GIDC building at Patto Plaza in Panjim.
http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/GIDC-FoodPark-1.jpg
http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/GIDC-FoodPark-2.jpg
Regards,
r
Press Release
Saturday, Jan 12, 2008: Goas Movement Against SEZs (GMAS)
representatives were invited at a meeting called this morning in
Panjim by Chandrakant Kavlekar (MLA), Chairman of the Goa
Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), for a presentation
on the Betul-Quitol Food Park project. The Managing Director
of GIDC gave details of the project report of the said Food Park
prepared by GIDCs paid consultants Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd for
a fee of Rs 15 lakhs.
To a query whether alternatives besides the Food Park were
considered, the answer was in the negative. Asked why it was
that only the Food Park was proposed, the answer was that
the Central govt. offered tax incentives and subsidies for
this kind of project. Which only shows that this project is
neither need-based nor based on the requirements of the
local population.
On further questioning whether this project would employ
the local people and whether they had the required skills,
the answer was ambiguous as no statistical data or study
on available manpower/resources had been undertaken in
the neighboring areas.
GMAS wants to know why the Goa govt. is acquiring peoples
land including that of communidades and of temples and
handing it away to private parties. When asked about the
companies that have applied to utilize the costly infrastructure
that is going to be provided for the so-called processing
zones (incubation centres, laboratories, storage facilities,
innovation centres, trading house, communications infrastructure,
support infrastructure), the answer was that the infrastructure
was being built to permit the companies who want to come
to this park so that they could first use this infrastructure
to see the viability of their own projects, and only if it makes
business sense they may, at their own discretion, move in
to set up their units in Goa. Which implies that the GIDC
does not know beforehand who are the applicants for the
proposed infrastructure. It appears that this is a very
costly experiment in guesswork, which is a joke at the
expense of Goas land and the tax-paying citizen.
When questioned on the auxiliary parks that have been
advertised all over the world, there was no clear response.
But it is reliably learnt that these auxiliary parks are nothing
but a Township that appears to be very much linked to
the selfsame Food Park. Since the auxiliary parks are
comprised of villas and multi-storied apartments priced
from £37,500 to £249,950, it is apparent that this is a
real estate scam.
GMAS wants to make it absolutely clear that it is opposed
to Food Parks, Auxiliary Parks, Townships, Mining, as well
as any Real Estate Projects and this was clearly expressed
during the meeting this morning as the same is neither in
the interests of the people of Goa nor in the interests of
the people of Quepem and surrounding areas. GMAS
demands a thorough inquiry into this project the contents
of which should be made public so that the culprits involved
in the misuse of public land and public funds are brought
to book. GMAS further demands that the Goa govt. should
drop any and all land acquisition proceedings that are in
progress right away.
Matanhy Saldanha
Convener
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