The Nationalist Congress Party has said that the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) was trying to misguide and cheat farmers of Mapusa by deleting their names from the land use register.
“As part of the process of preparing the outline development plan of Mapusa, the NGPDA has prepared the land use register. In this land use register, the names of majority farmers who are tenants and possession holders have been deleted and only the names of owners have been retained,” said Sanjay Barde, General Secretary of NCP.
“This clearly indicates that the government was trying to deceive the farmers because they expect the farmers will not check the land use register and they won’t raise objections within the one-month limit set up by the NGPDA,” he added.
The NCP general secretary along with other party members was recently addressing the media in Mapusa.
Continuing, Barde said some farmers affiliated to the Shree Bodgeshwar Shetkari Sangh approached the member secretary of the NGPDA and asked him about the rationale of missing names of the tenants.
He said the motive to delete the names of tenants (farmers) was to hoodwink the farmers and leave them at the mercy of the courts.
“The NGPDA expects the farmers will not check the land use register within the one-month notice period and therefore, will fail to raise objections. Later, when the farmers raise a hue and cry, the planning authority will take a stand that since you have not raised objections, go to the court,” Barde said.
He said all this was done since the government was planning to introduce the downtown scheme in Mapusa by hook or by crook.
“They want to introduce the downtown scheme by cheating the farmers and denying them their right. People of Mapusa will have to be alert,” he said.
Barde also said that as per land record the names of the farmers (tenants) have already come on land survey record.
He said the NGPDA should add their names before the period of the notification ends on September 7 and a fresh notification should be issued.
