the goan I network
PANAJI
The outgoing president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee Shantaram Naik has demanded that those who stand to lose their land to the upcoming Mopa Greenfield Airport should be paid four times the market value of their land, which he claimed was a minimum of Rs 6,000 per sq mtr.
Naik has demanded that the enhanced compensation, which is three times the ‘primary compensation’, should be increased to four times the market value of the land instead.
Speaking to the media at Congress House on Monday, Naik said, “Although an approximate 98 lakh square mts of land at Mopa was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the government should adopt the principles mentioned in the Right to Fair (Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Act 2013 in the larger interest of farmers and weaker sections, whose land has been acquired.”
Terming the administrative decision to pay three times the ‘primary compensation’ a “fraud”, Naik said that it does not emanate from any of the provisions under Land Acquisition Act.
“The prevailing land rate at Mopa is Rs 1,500 per sq mtr and therefore, land losers should get Rs 6,000 per sq mts,” he said while adding that the government’s decision to give enhanced compensation is subject to the availability of funds and budgetary provisions, and further, guidelines also state that beneficiaries will not be eligible for interest in the event of any delay in payment.
The GPCC president also questioned whether any social impact study was made with respect to the acquired land.
“Certain infrastructural facilities have to be provided to the land losers such as proper road link, sanitation, toilet facilities, school facilities, anganwadis, sub health center and primary health centre, playground community centers and so on, “ he said.
Naik also criticized the Goa Requisition and Acquisition of Property Bill, 2017, in which the Goa government proposes a compromises formula whereby government will requisition property for 15 years and release it after the expiry of 15 years or before that.
“The Act is an indirect way of acquiring the land forcibly from a rightful owner,” he stated.
