MARGAO
For Madgavkars in particular and Saxttikar in general, “Moti Dongor” is akin to a migrant-inhabited basti, a hillock playing host to a 2,500-odd vote bank; encroachments on comunidade land, illegal shanties et al.
Come elections, be it the Assembly or Municipal polls, it’s not uncommon to find politicians of all hues jostle to reach out and woo the migrant electorate, in a bid to garner the crucial “block” vote, which can make or mar the prospects of candidates in the fray.
When seven-time Margao MLA Digambar Kamat thundered from Moti Dongor that not a single structure dotting the hillock will be razed down as long as he is there, it is being viewed in political circles as an attempt to re-establish himself as the undisputed leader atop the hillock, more so after the fort crumbled in the 2024 Lok Sabha election when Kamat and the BJP could not give a lead for party candidate Pallavi Dempo from Moti Dongor.
Perhaps for the first time in recent electoral history, Moti Dongor did not give a lead for Digambar Kamat-supported candidate, so much so that the Congress led in two of the three polling booths at the hillock. In fact, the Lok Sabha election result from Moti Dongor, sources say, has demolished the myth that the former chief minister is the undisputable leader and voters atop the basti vote as per Kamat’s dictates.
Against this backdrop, the seven-time Margao MLA has been making overt and covert overtures, extending his hand of friendship to the migrant voters post-2024 Lok Sabha result. Political observers say Kamat cannot afford to lose the “block vote” which had in the past kept him in good stead against his political opponents, who had to be content with a handful of votes. Against this backdrop, observers say Kamat’s challenge to raze down even one structure at Moti Dongor may not go down well with Madgavkars or Goemkars, but none other than the Margao MLA and the BJP knows for sure how significant is Moti Dongor behind Kamat’s electoral success over the years. BJP leadership in particular will agree that the Lotus could not bloom in Margao in the last 17 years precisely because Moti Dongor stood as a barrier between the party and Kamat, blocking all attempts to storm the hillock since 2005 till 2022.
Police outpost, wellness
centre and housing
Post-2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Margao MLA seemed to have gone back to the basic at Moti Dongor to address the issues facing the basty. To keep anti-socials at bay, Kamat got a police outpost set up at Moti Dongor in October last year. This has been followed up a wellness centre inaugurated a day ago at the hands of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane.
The contentious issue of rehabilitation of the migrant inhabitants, however, seemed to have come back to haunt the MLA. Having found no solution to the housing needs of the migrants during his 30-year old stint as Margao MLA, and the demolition order hanging over the inhabitants for the last 12 years since 2013, Kamat’s statement that not a single structure will be razed down is also seen as a reassurance from him to the migrant voters, who had stood behind him thick and thin when he had quit the BJP to embrace the Congress in 2005.
Land acquisition,
rehabilitation of
migrant inhabitants
Digambar Kamat’s first major decision after he returned back to the BJP fold on September 14, 2022 is to set the ball rolling for the rehabilitation of the migrant inhabitants at Moti Dongor. He got Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to make budgetary provision of Rs five crore for land acquisition.
The ground reality, however, remains unchanged on the ground, barring the demarcation exercise carried out by the Land Survey department to find out the exact quantum of land occupied by the inhabitants and the land ownership.
Against this backdrop, the government’s initiative to constitute a six-member panel headed by Director of Municipal Administration with a brief to study issues ranging from land acquisition to rehabilitation of the Moti Dongor, whether by the government or via Public Private Partnership mode is seen as a fresh attempt by the Margao MLA to reassure the voters his commitment to acquire land and offer them descent housing.
