Team Goemkarponn
MARGAO: For 32 years, Margao has heard of a new Kabrastan whenever elections approach. Now, the baton of false promise has passed from Margao MLA & PWD Minister Digambar Kamat to BJP President Damu Naik. Only a change in Margao’s leadership can deliver this long-pending civic necessity, stated Madganvcho Awaaz & Youth Leader Prabhav Naik.
“The information provided to the Goa Legislative Assembly exposes how old this promise really is. In 1999, Digambar Kamat himself, then Margao MLA, moved Resolution No. 26 in the Goa Legislative Assembly seeking allotment of sufficient land in and around Margao for a burial ground. The Resolution was passed unanimously. Records also refer to land measuring 99,513 sq. metres at Pajifond and Survey No. 52, PT Sheet No. 228,” said Prabhav Naik.
“Promises continued, but the Kabrastan did not come. A proposal for land at Fatorda in 2002 lapsed; another proposal in 2006 for additional land adjoining the existing Pajifond Kabrastan was dropped following objections; and a subsequent proposal at Davorlim also failed to proceed. In October 2009, the National Commission for Minorities wrote to Digambar Kamat, who was then Chief Minister, seeking implementation of the Assembly Resolution,” stated Prabhav Naik.
“The Government thereafter invoked the urgency clause under the Land Acquisition Act and initiated acquisition of 30,191 sq. metres at Sonsodo in 2010. The acquisition was completed in 2011. Yet, 11 years later, there was still no Kabrastan. In its judgment dated 12 October 2022, the Bombay High Court at Goa recorded this prolonged failure despite the acknowledged ‘dire necessity’ of a Kabrastan,” pointed out Prabhav Naik.
“The political failure becomes even more glaring thereafter. As late as 3 August 2022, the High Court recorded that there were ‘no legal impediments whatsoever’ to proceeding with the Sonsodo Kabrastan. Yet, within weeks, the MMC changed its stand and questioned the feasibility of the site. Residents of Borda, Gogol and Agalli subsequently raised objections on 18 November 2022 concerning, among other issues, the steep gradient and environmental sensitivity of the land,” said Prabhav Naik.
“Even the intervention of the High Court could not bring the project to the ground. GSUDA was given a 12-month extension with an assurance that work would start from 27 November 2023. But on 20 February 2024, the High Court again recorded that there was ‘no progress at the site’ and termed it ‘most unfortunate’. After an Assembly Resolution, land acquisition under the urgency clause, intervention of the National Commission for Minorities and repeated High Court directions, Margao is still being given promises. Thirty-two years are enough. Margao needs delivery, not another election-time promise,” concluded Prabhav Naik.
