MARGAO
What would be the poll outcome at Moti Dongor, the migrant basti in the Margao Assembly segment, when the EVMs are opened for counting on June 4? Will Congress-turned-BJP Margao MLA Digambar Kamat maintain his stranglehold over the migrant-inhabited hillock or will his fort finally crumble with a shift among the voters after a determined bid by the opposition INDIA bloc?
These and other questions have been a subject of debate in the city’s political circles post-May 7 Lok Sabha polls, even as political observers are trying to unravel the mystery behind Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s surprise visit atop Moti Dongor on polling day.
For the Moti Dongor inhabitants, however, these questions sound irrelevant and do not form part of their daily discourse. What they seemed looking forward to the government and the powers that be is the promised rehabilitation of the migrants against whom the sword of Damocles has been hanging for over a decade now after the South Goa Administrator of Comunidades ordered the demolition of the illegal shanties atop Moti Dongor in the year 2013.
After years of paying lip service, rehabilitation of the Moti Dongor slum dwellers had finally taken centre stage after seven-time Margao MLA Digambar Kamat returned to the BJP fold on September 14, 2022, after his long 17-year stint with the Congress. Not only did Kamat take up the rehabilitation matter with the BJP-led Goa government, but Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was quick to make a provision of Rs five crore in his 2023-24 Budget estimates for the slum rehabilitation at Margao and other towns.
That the government backed the announcement with a land demarcation exercise at Moti Dongor by involving the Land Survey department showed that the machinery had moved at the migrant-inhabited colony perhaps for the first time ever with the avowed objective of rehabilitating the slum dwellers.
That’s not all. This was followed by an unprecedented decision by the Digambar Kamat-controlled Margao Municipal Council, wherein the civic body took a step forward to issue Enable House Numbers to the illegal structures just before the run-up to the May 7 Lok Sabha polls.
The bigger question, however, remains unanswered “ how would the government go about the rehabilitation of the Moti Dongor slum dwellers when the Comunidade of Aquem is the owner of the land, besides a significant number of the shanties located in a private property.
Left with little or no option, the migrant slum dwellers seemed pinning hopes on the powers that be to take the rehabilitation plan to the logical conclusion. Sources at the South Goa Collectorate informed nothing has moved since the Land Survey department capped a survey of the Moti Dongor area earlier this year. In fact, a senior official pointed out that the government will have to arrange funds to the tune of crores of rupees to procure the land identified in question for rehabilitation or go for forceful land acquisition.
“The process of procurement or acquisition of the land admeasuring around 37,600 square metres is expected to cost the exchequer a bomb. Crores of rupees will be required for the land acquisition,” remarked a senior official.
Around 37600 square metres of land at Moti Dongor has been identified and demarcated as per the plan, of which area admeasuring 20,400 square metres falls within the acquisition, while land admeasuring 14,000 square metres and another parcel of land admeasuring 3200 square metres is shown as additional area.
Redevelopment scheme in limbo? No progress after slum's survey
It’s nearly two months since the Office of the Superintendent of Survey & Land Records capped the survey of the Moti Dongor before coming out with the proposed land acquisition plan for the area of the slum dwellers.
But has the government, the Department of Municipal Administration and the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) prepared the redevelopment scheme at Moti Dongor?
A glance at the minutes of the high-level meeting held at the Secretariat to discuss the Moti Dongor rehabilitation plan showed that the Department of Municipal Administration and GSUDA were given the brief to prepare a redevelopment scheme at Moti Dongor either through public-private partnership (PPP) mode or through any agency of State Government through any scheme/funded by the central government.
A glance at the minutes further showed that the Director of Municipal Administration was mandated to ensure that adequate budgetary provisions were made for the land acquisition, with a brief to forward the proposal to the Collector, South at the earliest to work out the probable land rates and compile the amount as per the land procurement policy.
Swing segment? Moti Dongor holds key to Kamat's plans for BJP boom
Of the close to 3000 voters at Moti Dongor, around 2000-odd voters are believed to have exercised their franchise in the May 7 Lok Sabha polls, throwing up a simple question “ will Congress-turned-BJP Margao MLA Digambar Kamat pocket the block vote in support of the BJP as he had done in many a Lok Sabha and Assembly election held in the recent past?
Well, sources say the BJP’s projected lead in Margao, the only Assembly segment in Salcete, where the ruling party is expected to lead over the Congress in Salcete, is linked directly to the migrant-inhabited Moti Dongor.
For, the recent elections, more so when Kamat abandoned the BJP to embrace the Congress, Moti Dongor had stood like a rock, giving a huge and unassailable lead for the Margao MLA, leaving the BJP stranded midway in the final vote tally.
Against this backdrop, questions are being repeatedly asked in political circles whether the Congress can make any significant dent in Moti Dongor to reduce the BJP lead in the area and foil Kamat’s plan to register a big lead for Pallavi Dempo in his fiefdom.
