When he became the chief minister of Goa in 2012, he had said that Goa was virtually standing on the brink of “ethnic dilution”.
According to an assessment by his government, the unrestricted migration from other states threatened to reduce the native population to an “alienated microscopic minority” by 2021. “Unrestricted migration and whole-scale transfer of land are beginning to submerge the unique Goan identity. Though we have noticed this trend in the last decade, it has now assumed menacing proportions. The apprehension is that by 2021 the migrant population will outnumber local Goans”.
SURAJ ANNDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
The Bhumiputra Bill has certainly kicked up a storm in the coastal State of Goa. The Niz Goenkar’s or the original Goans are feeling threatened that the illegal dwellings of the migrants would be legalised at their cost.
The ruling BJP, on the other hand, has said the BIll is for Niz Goenkars, and controversy is being created because of the forthcoming elections.
The citizens have accused the government of trying to appease the migrant population as teh Dr Pramod Sawant government is losing popularity due to its anti-people and anti-environment decisions.
While Dr Sawant’s cabinet ministers have defended the legalisation of migrant dwelling, e wish to remind the saffron brigade, CM and the ministers that it was their idol, late Manohar Parrikar, who wanted to stop migration and demanded Special Status for Goa.
When he became the chief minister of Goa in 2012, he had said that Goa was virtually standing on the brink of “ethnic dilution”.
According to an assessment by his government, the unrestricted migration from other states threatened to reduce the native population to an “alienated microscopic minority” by 2021.
“Unrestricted migration and whole-scale transfer of land are beginning to submerge the unique Goan identity. Though we have noticed this trend in the last decade, it has now assumed menacing proportions. The apprehension is that by 2021 the migrant population will outnumber local Goans”.
This apprehension was expressed by an all-party delegation, led by then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, which met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi last evening.
Underlining the gradual influx of migrants settling down in the coastal State, a hot tourist destination, the memorandum submitted to the prime minister rued that the cosmopolitan character of the State has been grossly misunderstood.
The Parrikar-led delegation met Singh and placed the demand for special status, empowering the local government to restrict land sale to non-Goans.
The apprehension was that Goans will become an alienated microscopic minority within their own State,” reads the petition that has taken stock of the migration trend right from the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rulers in 1961.
Only 51 per cent of people now speak the official Konkani language. In contrast, the collective proportion of Konkani and Marathi-speaking people is two-third of the total population, which means one-third of the population is of migrant settlers, the state policy-makers said, quoting the latest Census data.
“The data confirm that migration is diluting the ethnic character of Goa. In the first decade after liberation, the growth of the population was 34.77 per cent. This trend of migration is contributing to population growth even today. The latest growth of population for the last decade is 8.17 per cent,” according to the memorandum.
Parrikar was also worried about Goa being branded as the “retirement destination and a holiday home for people from the rest of the country and the world”.
“This has led to a huge boom in construction activities in the State in the last ten years or so. This is borne out by the 2011 census data, which shows that there are 5,76,582 census houses. Out of this, 1,25,503 census houses are vacant, all probably belonging to migrants who treat this as a second home…This is 21.8 per cent of the total number of houses,” the memorandum added.