PANAJI: The meeting of the rehabilitation committee on Selaulim irrigation project was held after seven years gap on Friday wherein it has been decided to resolve various issues including granting the status of land allotted to project-affected people from class II to class I and identifying land to rehabilitate those who have not yet benefited under the rehabilitation scheme.
The meeting held at Secretariat was chaired by Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar and attended by Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar besides Deputy Collector of Sanguem Viraj Gaude and officials from South Goa Collectorate as well as WRD.
Speaking to this daily after the meeting, WRD Minister said that his department has initiated process to give justice to people affected by the Selaulim irrigation project.
“The issue has been pending for last many years and today we have decided to resolve it permanently so as to help people who sacrificed their land for Selaulim irrigation project,” he added.
Sanguem MLA Gaonkar said that there are 643 affected families who were allotted plots for agriculture and housing by the government and are still waiting to get ownership right of the land.
“These 643 families have been shown as class II occupants in the government document, thus they cannot claim ownership of the plots. So, our demand was to make them class I from class II immediately. The meeting which was held after a gap of seven years was positive and I hope all the issues related to rehabilitation of affected people under Selaulim irrigation project will be resolved soon,” Gaonkar said.
He informed that last meeting of the rehabilitation committee was held on March 14, 2012 when Vasudev Meng Gaonkar was MLA and thereafter no meeting took place.
The Independent legislator further informed that the committee has been constituted to identify land in Vaddem and Valankini in Sanguem taluka for those families who are being considered as ‘missing beneficiaries’ as they have not got land under rehabilitation scheme so far.
“After identifying the land, these families, who have been waiting for long, will get 400 square metre plot each,” he said.
Kavlekar said that this was new beginning to give justice to project affected people from Sanguem who had sacrificed their land for the Selaulim irrigation project.
Ironically, the process for acquiring land from the locals for Selaulim project was initiated in 1972 by the government and the people from Vaddem and surrounding villages were shifted in the year 1984. However, the issue of rehabilitation of affected people has not been fully resolved till date.
The affected people were promised by the government that they would get plots for agriculture and housing besides job to every household, healthcare facilities and other basic amenities.