the goan I network
MARGAO
Farmers from Navelim and Aquem-Baixo opposed attempts by the Margao Municipal Council to set up barricading of the fields opposite the Margao railway station for the storage of rejects that will be generated during the
remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump.
A group of Margao municipal workers, who had gone to the site with wooden poles to erect the barricades met with stiff resistance from the farmers who were all armed with placards opposing the Goa Waste Management Corporation’s plan to store the Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) in the fields after barricading.
Local residents of Aquem-Baixo, including former sarpanch Siddesh Bhagat also descended in the fields to express their solidarity with the protesting farmers, demanding that the cultivated paddy fields cannot be the place for the storage of waste or RDF items.
The farmers along with citizens from both Margao and Navelim also called on Margao MLA Digambar Kamat seeking his intervention in the matter. The delegation impressed upon the Margao MLA that the land acquisition by the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) had lapsed as held by the South Goa District Court in 2015 and that the land does not belong to the agency.
A delegation of activists comprising of Nevins Gomes, Melvyn Fernandes and others also called on Margao Municipal Engineer Manoj Arsekar and some councillors with a plea to do a re-think on using the cultivated fields for the storage of RDF, fearing that the waste may spread across the entire fields.
The delegation also questioned the municipal engineer why the civic body has not tapped the land adjoining the Sonsodo site, which was supposed to be made available by the municipality with NOCs from the land owner.
MMC Chief Officer Ajit Panchwadkar said the municipality will find out the status from the GSUDA which has claimed that the agency had acquired the land in question and is in possession of the land. Though the MMC workers had gone to the site
with the wooden poles, they had to return back for want of police protection to go ahead with the work.
