Mopa resistence to land acqusition for proposed Mopa Airport

On August 30, 2010 Mr M.K Vasta land acquisition officer along with an assistant came to mopa airport area for a hearing regarding issuing of section 9 and 10, at Vasadev temple at Tulaskar wadi. Lot of villagers from Cansarvonem, Tulaskar wadi, Dhangar wadi who were served notice were present for the meeting.

Mr Vasta asked the people regarding compensation, valuation of trees etc, the people asked him that in notification 2221 RD 2008 - 5A it is mentioned that people should not object land acquisition so how are we to ask and what to ask we do not know.

Janardhan Tulaskar, Dinkar Tulaskar, Digamber Tulaskar questioned Mr Vasta on benefits of the airport project which he could not answer, also when they asked him of destruction of forest, agriculture and water , he replied that environment matters the court will handle and other things he doesnt know and he obeys orders of his superiors. He also mentioned that land will be acquired and handed to the government and later the steering commitee will decide what to do. What does this mean ?

Most of the people asked for time to reply.

The people have approached the High Court and the Attorney General has assured the Court that the land acquisition will be stopped till the court decision, but here people were so annoyed that the government is bent on acquiring their land without obeying the high court, issuing of section 9 and 10 is illegal as the land acquisition process is in the court.

As per the villagers the govt will only acquire their land and drive them out of their motherland. No one can build an airport here as the Mopa plateau has steep slopes on all sides and to level this slopes is just not humanly possible. “There will be no airport here but this process is just to acquire our beautiful land and drive us out of here, then they may sell the land to big land sharks as construction of airport is not possible and Goa being small can suffice with one airport” villagers observed.