Mapusa: Lashing out at the government over ‘deletion’ of names of farmers from the register of Mapusa planning area, several farmers from different villages came together, on Sunday, and resolved to stage a morcha at the Mapusa municipality building next week.
They also decided to approach Deputy Collector, Bardez, demanding reentering of all the names which have been omitted from the register.
Under the banner of Bodgeshwar Shetkari Sangh, several farmers from Mapusa and surrounding villages came together at Bodgeshwar temple hall over the issue of deletion of names of farmers from the register of Mapusa planning area after objections and suggestions were invited to finalise the draft plan by North Goa Planning and Development Authority.
The draft ODP includes Mapusa municipality areas besides villages like Verla-Canca, Guirim, Colvale and Camurlim.
Addressing the farmers, Sanjay Barde, president of Bodgeshwar Shetkari Sangh said that “NGPDA has invited suggestions and objections on land use plan and register of Mapusa planning area.”
“Over 1300 names of farmers, who are tenants and have been cultivating fields, have been deleted from the occupant›s column in the land use register. These farmers› names along with land owners’ names have been registered with the land and revenue department. We have filed our objection in this regard under our Shetkari Sangh,” said Barde.
He added that farmers have already given their agricultural land to the government for developmental works in Mapusa and in the taluka and never objected to development.
“All ruling MLAs are responsible for deletion of names of the farmers and no MLA from Bardez has come out to support farmers and raised question over deletion of names. They are not concerned about the farmers,” alleged Barde.
He appealed to all farmers to come out and join the Sangh in its protest.
During the meeting, Ulhas Barde, Ramdas Shirodkar, Alexio D’Souza, John Lobo, and other farmers expressed their views and extended support.