----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN sees Naxal Bogey as ploy to get finance for Police Infrastructure to protect vested business interests in Tourism and Mining ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN strongly condemns the statement made by former Chief Minister and the present Opposition Leader Mr. Manohar Parrikar at the meeting of the Goa Legislative Assembly Ad Hoc Committee on Home, that activist Sebastian Rodrigues & others are Naxalites and promoting the use of terrorist methods to achieve success in their anti-mining environmental agitation.
GOACAN perfectly understands the strategic reasons, why the Opposition Leader Mr. Manohar Parrikar chose to make these statements at the meeting of the Ad hoc committee for Home in his capacity as Chairperson and not at a BJP Press conference as there are plans of the Central Govt. to strengthen the police apparatus in the State of Goa. GOACAN also understands the context of the statement of the former Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar of maligning genuine activists as terrorists, as his political party the BJP requires to justify the proposed setting up of 500 NGOs in Goa particularly in the mining belt in the next 6 months. It may be recalled that the Government of Goa has set up 3 Coastal Security Police Stations namely Siolim, Harbour and Mobor wherein the jurisdiction of these police stations is peculiarly limited to an area of 200 meters from the High Tide Line and 12 nautical miles in the Sea. There is no record of any request of any MLA of any Political Party to set up such police stations with this peculiar jurisdiction, neither was this proposal tabled at any session of the Goa Legislative Assembly nor was this discussed at Block Advisory Committee (BAC), Zilla Parishad, Village Panchayat and Municipal Council meetings especially as there is already the Goa Marine Police who could have covered the same jurisdiction. Moreover, it is not surprising that in a recent Gazette Notification the jurisdiction of these Coastal Police Stations have been extended to the various major rivers and their tributaries in Goa especially as all the Iron Ore exports to Japan and China are being transported in barges through these rivers as well as the existing & new Offshore Casinos are being shifted to jetties being built on these very river banks. GOACAN is of the opinion that the State is using large amounts of tax-payers money to create a huge police infrastructure in the name of fighting terrorism which in actual fact will be used to protect the interest of Indian & Goan Big Business Houses who are diversifying into Five Star Hotels, Mega housing projects, Golf Courses and Casinos. It is evident that there are vested business interests who are deciding State priorities as tax payers money which should have been spent on infrastructure like garbage disposal, public toilets, market places, efficient public transport system, durable roads, 24 hours water supply and uninterrupted electricity is being diverted to create more Armoured Police Battalions and Intelligence networks so as to provide security to the Business Houses and also to respond to the agitations of the Aam Aadmi. GOACAN calls upon the people of Goa to be vigilant to the designs of the Central Government to convert Goa into a Special Tourism Area on the lines of Hawaii, Las Vegas and Pattaya to satiate the lust and greed of the rich and famous who are keen to spend their ill gotten wealth in the luxury of the Hotel rooms, Swimming pools, Night Clubs and Casino's of Goa. GOACAN calls upon citizens to be vigilant as there is a surreptitious plan for a Super Luxury R & R Tourism Enclave extending from the Sindhudurg Tourism District with a 80km Special Tourism Area (STA) in the State of Maharashtra, on the Northern border of Goa and the Seabird Naval Base at Karwar in Karnataka on the Southern border covering the 3 states with Goa as the Core Area and Mopa as it's International Airport. GOACAN is of the firm belief that while the preparation of this enclave is underway, there will be determined efforts to dismantle the traditional occupations, land and beach space used by Mundkars, Toddy Tappers, Small Farmers, Ramponkars, Beach Shack Owners etc which will result in innumerable daily sustained agitations and increased confrontations with builders of Mega Projects, Multi-National Hotel Companies and Mining Conglomerates for which a new kind of Policing system will be set up using the guise of countering Terrorism and Naxal infiltration. ---------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ---------------------------------------------------------- promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa ---------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------- __._,_.___
