------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre (GDRC) Email: [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- Govt pushes ahead acquisition of Nuvem field for playground -------------------------------------------------------------- Rejecting the objections raised by farmers and others, the government has gone ahead with the acquisition of a huge track of land at Nuvem for the development of a government village school playground.
That the government appears hell bent on acquiring the land became apparent on Sunday when section 6 of the the Land Acquisition Act was notified towards acquisition of the land. The only difference is that while the government initially had planned to acquire 50,000-odd square meters, the acquisition is now restricted to land admeasuring around 48,500 square metres. Agricultural tenants of paddy fields and others have been waging a sustained battled against acquisition of their fields known as Tolloi since the last one year. Readers may recall that the Nuvem Village Panchayat had even adopted a resolution to the drop the proceedings and scrap the project, but that apparently did not deter the government to go ahead with the proposal. While the farmers have been steadfast in their opposition to the land acquisition proposal, others have questioned the government rationale for acquiring the huge area when land admeasuring 15000 to 18000 square metres would have met the requirements of the playground. In their recent memorandum, the farmers had contended there's no government school in the vicinity of the land proposed for acquisition for a playground. "The nearest government school is a Balwadi, having a strength of around 20 to 30 students in the age group of 3-5 years." The farmers had contended that the acquisition is also not suitable for the alleged public purpose as the notified land is entirely a fertile agricultural land comprising of paddy fields. "Agricultural tenants have been cultivating paddy along with other seasonal crops such as chillies, onions, sweet potatoes, water melons", they contended, adding "the notified land being entirely marshy paddy fields would require filling up of the fields with mud at the height of at least two meters, which would not only be a very expensive proposition, but would also affect the natural drainage of the rain water in Nuvem village." ----------------------------------------- HERALD 16/02/09 page 1 ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 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 mail: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------- __._,_.___
