Farmers protest land aquisitions in Goa

The state of Goa has commenced a number of senseless acquisitions of agricultural lands all over Goa. It is observed that all ongoing government projects have been planned only in Eco-sensitive lands which are also used as agricultural lands by us. The deliberate acquisitions of large Eco-sensitive lands for irreversible change is a lethal assault on our environment , our lives and the future of Goa.

We therefore resolve that no agricultural lands in our villages shall be acquired / allowed to be acquired. If the state government does not stop the ongoing acquisitions, we shall take all necessary measures to protect our motherland.

The Salpem - Tollem Xetkarancho Ekvott had organised a meeting at Rosary School Hall in Navelim to protest acquisition of fields 2,72,000 sq mts.

The PWD is acquiring fields for expansion of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and a buffer zone for STP. Total agricultural land required is 272000 sq.mts. As per common knowledge expansion of STP can be done in their existing land which is more than sufficient and also confirmed by Chief Minister Mr. Digambar Kamat, said Jose Paul Coutinho, he said further that the STP is having capacity of 7.5 MLD and the sewage entering STP is 1.5 MLD, then why acquire land when it is under capacity.


1. George Barreto spoke on forcible land grabbing for Sinquetim bridge.

2. Melwyn Pereira spoke on pollution of Salpem Lake and how the farmers had to stop farming due to pollution, how development of Margao destroyed Salpem lake, is that the real development?

3. Sidharth Karapurkar spoke that land acquisition act 1894 was a British act designed to grab land from Indians for the East India Company, so why is Goa government using this British act to grab land from its own people, they are acting like the British. He also mentioned that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written a reply to GXE and Goa government asking the Goa government not to acquire agricultural land.

4. Cruz Rodrigues spoke that Communidade land is thousand years old and that government has no right to acquire it.

5. Claudias Dias from Rawanfond spoke how the government robbed their fields and now they don’t have anything for livelihood and have to depend on petty jobs.

6. Sandeep Kambli from Mopa spoke on how government is acquiring land when there exists a airport in Goa, also Goa being small state it does not require 2 airports, and the government will close Dabolim airport after commencing airport at Mopa. The runway of Dabolim is enough to land A 380 which requires 3200mts length and Dabolim can be expanded to 4000 mts as per google earth images.

Sidharth Karapurkar

DEMANDING IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF TEN ANTI-MINING ACTIVISTS

Cheryl, Akki and Dora, who have been resisting mining at Maina, are the youngest and oldest anti-mining activists in the group. There are 200 mining trucks parked in their neighbourhood, with labour hired to dig ore even at night!!!







Environmentalist Sebastain Rodrigues, Father Mathais and other villagers seen sharing their environmental concerns at the Colamb anti-mining Public Meeting few days ago.



People from many villages came to the public meeting to share their concerns due to increasing mining in their respective areas.

Local activists protesting against mining activities in Maina have been arrested at Quepem Police Station today (11/10/08) at 3:00 p.m.

We demand their immediate release.

We appeal to all citizens of Goa to show solidarity to the struggling people, who are resisting mining-terrorism in the area.

PLEASE CALL QUEPEN POLICE STATION AT 0832662253 AND DEMAND THEIR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Among those arrested were Cheryl D'Souza San Francisco, Akki D' Souza, her eight year-old daughter, her mother Dora D'Souza, who is 85 years-old and other activists including Sebastian Rodrigues, and Kurush Tandonwala.

With no response from the Chief Minister's office and continued threats by the local mafia-mining company goons, Cheryl and her family decided to protest today by chaining themselves to the trucks and refusing to be compensated by local mining authorities for her farmlands. Cheryl, along with others from mining-affected villages in Goa, Cowrem, Rivona and Maina resisted 200 trucks from transporting ore outside the area.

The incident turned ugly when local mafia beat up the activists of Mand Adivasi Resource Centre, GAKUVED, Cheryl and her family, their cameras have been destroyed.

We appeal to the activists of the mass movement to write to the CM and the Governor for immediate release of the following:

Cheryl D'Souza
Rita Fernandes
Akki D'Souza
Kurush Canteenwala

Shashikala Devidas
Dora D' Souza
Sebastian Rodrigues

We demand that mining activities be immediately stopped at Maina, which are being conducted in the buffer zone of the sanctuary.

We demand that Environmental Clearance for mining at Maina be withdrawn, since these activities severely affect the ecological balance in that area.

Mining activities are illegal and should end since they also violate the Forest Conservation Act.

For photographs of Public Meeting, click here

Posted by Vijay Pratap, Shaweta and Sayantoni from South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy-CSDS (website link), Delhi