NT NETWORK
BETUL
The central government’s proposal to expand the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) with a satellite port at Betul with an additional 200 acre land has found no favour with the village panchayat, the residents and traditional fishermen.
The Centre had sought around 150 to 200 acres of land at Betul to handle bauxite, iron ore and possibly coal. MPT is claiming that it already has 75 acre of land in the area, however, the panchayat wants the port trust to come clear as to where the land is situated and where does the Centre wants the land in the village.
Acting sarpanch Gracy Fernandes said the Centre has arrived at such a major decision but till date nobody has taken the village panchayat into confidence on the project. The panchayat will surely place the development before the gram sabha but at present the panchayat is not in favour of the project, Fernandes said.
On assurance from the Union minister Nitin Gadkari about employment opportunities, the sarpanch made light of it saying the government had assured jobs in ONGC, but where are Goans in that company.
She said that “today the government is saying there will be employment but tomorrow they will say the youth are not qualified and are not suitable for the jobs.”
Traditional fishermen and panchayat member Sudhakar Joshi said that MPT should come clear as to where do they own 75 acre of land in the village and where do they want the 200 acre land more. He said the government should also come clear on the impact of the satellite port on the activity of traditional fishermen, adding that, if the project stands to affect the villagers they will surely oppose it.
On the other hand, locals pointed that the village has no infrastructure to support a port in the village. They said the roads are inhabited by traditional fishermen and hence there is no scope for road widening as it will displace the villagers.
“We are not against development but it should not be at the cost of villagers,” they said.
Highly-placed sources in the know informed that a high-level team of MPT including its chairman had visited Betul and inspected the site and also inspected the site at Quitol recently which is located inside ONGC compound which was once used in the 1950s to unload iron ore and transfer it onto barges at the mouth of river Sal through a conveyor belt.
They said some reason the operations were abandoned over 50 years back, however, the corroded conveyer belt still lies at the foot of the Betul fort.
The villagers informed that there are huge quantities of iron ore stacked up. They said that at the time of acquiring land for ONGC the ore stacks were taken inside and have been lying there ever since.
Local MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar was not available for comments.