After banning sale of agricultural land, the Goa government has now proposed to ban the conversion of all fields designated as 'rice', 'morad', 'kher' and 'khazan'. Well, this has been stated by CM Pramod Sawant last Tuesday while addressing the media and during the launch of the government's ambitious 'State Amritkal Agriculture Policy 2025. Sawant has said that even if the Town and Country Planning Department does approves conversion of agricultural fields, the NOC from the agricultural director would now be mandatory, adding that no NOC will be granted for any such conversions in future. Well, I support this proposal of the government because many Goans of late are seen practically filling their ancestral agricultural fields in rubble/mud using JCBs, converting them into private properties overnight by first planting a few coconut trees and then slowly selling them to all neighbouring outsiders i.e. from builders lobby to scrapyard owners. Yes, the government should permanently stop this madness of our foolish Goans of converting their ancestral agricultural fields into properties under some pretext or the other and slowly selling them just for the sake of making some quick bucks.
