MARGAO
The contentious issue of kabrastan has come back to haunt the politicians, Municipal Babus and planning officials with the issue set to come up before the High Court later this month.
Even as Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai, who represents the Fatorda constituency, had a meeting with his group of councillors and municipal and PDA officials on Thursday to discuss the imbroglio, a host of questions have come to the fore.
One is whether the land acquired by the Margao Municipal Council admeasuring 30,000 square meters on the Sonsodo hillock, just above the existing Catholic cemetery, is feasible for the proposed kabrastan given the steep gradient of the land in question. And, whether the burial ground can come up on the alternate site identified by the Margao Municipality and the PDA around the Khareband-Sirvodem locality, running parallel to the river Sal, when a portion of the identified land falls in the adjoining Navelim village.
Land admeasuring 30,000 square metres was acquired by the MMC in 2011 on the eve of the 2012 Assembly polls when Margao MLA Digambar Kamat was the chief minister. In fact, Kamat was present at the Margao Municipality when an agreement was inked by the Margao Municipal officials and the representatives of the Jamia Masjid, Malbhat over the issue of management of the burial grounds.
The kabrastan, however, never saw the light of the day at Sonsodo, more so after questions were initially raised about whether a burial ground can come up on a hillock with a steep gradient. Attempt to build the burial ground at Sonsodo later ran into rough weather around 2016 after strong protests by the residents of Borda, opposing the burial grounds close to the existing cemetery. The zone of the acquired land has since been changed to a special zone.
The proposal to shift the kabrastan site from Sonsodo to the Khareband-Sirvodem area was mooted in 2017 by the Margao Municipal Council. The then BJP government had sanctioned a grant of Rs 15 crore for land acquisition at Sirvodem for the proposed kabrastan, but the burial ground did not see the light of the day after objections from the local populace.
It is now learnt that the grant of Rs 15 crore which was sanctioned for the purpose of land acquisition has since been returned to the government for want of utilization of the funds.
The issue has suddenly come to the fore as the High Court is now seized of the matter in view of the Public Interest Litigation filed by a petitioner, seeking burial grounds in the city.
Sources in the know informed that the Margao Municipal Council may ask the PDA and the TCP to find out the feasibility of the Sonsodo land for the proposed kabrastan.
The municipality may also try and find out whether the civic body can identify alternate land to set up the burial ground.
Sources in the know said the issue may bring the Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and his Fatorda counterpart Vijai Sardesai face to face, with the Fatorda MLA conveying his strong reservations over the location of the burial grounds at Sonsodo on the land acquired by the MMC during Kamat’s stint as the state’s chief minister.
