MARGAO
How would the MLAs of Margao and Fatorda go about ensuring that the fields acquired by the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) are retained for paddy cultivation and remain as the city’s lungs in the future?
Having taken up cudgels for the beleaguered farmers Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, farmers of Madel and Rawanfond would be anxious to know the stand of the two MLAs vis-Ã -vis development proposed by the GSUDA on the acquired plots in the Margao Plan 2041.
Both the GSUDA plots at Madel and the one opposite the Margao railway station were acquired by the government around two decades ago. While the fields at Madel were acquired to set up the controversial truck terminus, a transportation centre was proposed by GSUDA at the acquired fields opposite the Margao railway station. Both the projects, however, did not take off primarily due to strong objections from the local farming community to the concretisation of their agricultural fields.
In fact, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai had called for reverting back the Madel fields, which were partly shown as special commercial zone in the 2019 ODP, to agriculture after farmers questioned the proposal to set up an IT hub at the GSUDA acquired field.
Similarly, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat had taken up cudgels for the farmers of Rawanfond when he along with citizens opposed plans to dump garbage and RDF on the GSUDA acquired fields located opposite the Margao railway station.
