The Goan Network
Panjim
Chimbel villagers along with the Gawada, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar federation (Gakuved) Federation, a body that aims to protect the rights of the scheduled tribes in the state, on Tuesday condemned the government for insisting on going ahead with the IT Park project in Chimbel.
The villagers along with the Gakuved Federation feel that the government is taking advantage of the fact that Chimbel is home to a large number of people from the scheduled tribe community, as well as migrants.
Questioning why the government hadn't gone ahead with the IT Park project as planned in Dona Paula, Chimbel villagers insisted that they were not opposed to the IT Park coming up: they just didn't want it in Chimbel.
Addressing a press conference in the city, General Secretary of the Federation Rupesh Velip said, "If the government continues with its high-handedness of having the Park in Chimbel, we will be forced to agitate all over Goa."
Further, the Chimbel villagers present said that the resolution in favour of the IT Park passed during the gram sabha held on December 9 was manipulated in a sense.
"The people who voted in favour of the park were manipulated by being told that their illegal structures in Indiranagar would be destroyed if they didn't," said Velip. He also alleged that money power had been used to bring people from Indiranagar for the gram sabha.
Meanwhile, Tukaram Kuncalienker asked the government to bring in a green agriculture project at Chimbel with the advanced technology that they had. "Paddy fields are destroyed. There's a little nature left, please don't destroy that," said Kuncalienkar.
Ramkrishna Jalmi alleged that in the guise of an IT Park, the government was trying to grab land. "The area is coming under Alvarra lands," he said.
"The government has acquired lakhs of square meters of land across the state. Why can't they use that?" he questioned.
Further Rama Kankonkar of the Federation pointed out that while the locals had asked IT Minister Rohan Khaunte to show them the blueprint of the IT Park, he had not done so.
"They're not taking people's views into consideration," said Kankonkar, adding that the government didn't even have basic statistics about how many unemployed graduates the state had, asking how the government would provide employment if they didn't even know how many people to provide employment for.
