PANAJI: The Revolutionary Goans Supremo, Manoj Parab condemns the announcement made by Pernem MLA Babu, Ajgaonkar and Mandrem MLA, Dayanand Sopte to set up a mega entertainment village spread over 1.5 lakh sqm in Mandrem.
While addressing the media at Pernem on Saturday morning, Revolutionary Goans went on to highlight that the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) plans to set up an entertainment village and the foundation stone for the proposed project is likely to be laid in the next six months, prior to the election.
“Open your tourism master plan and check properly there is already a provision made at Mopa Airport for an entertainment village. Is this really a development opportunity or a mere land grab case in the name of setting up an entertainment village. To create this infrastructure several trees will be cut, people will lose their land and animal species their habitat. After the greenfield international airport at Mopa, this is another big project that has been approved for Pernem taluka,” pointed out Manoj.
“Villagers are unaware about this project and neither was it discussed at the gram sabha. These MLA’s think that the people of Pernem are sleeping and will blindly allow anything to be done. They have already destroyed trees and fields to build roads for the Mopa airport and this time too they think people will keep quiet,” he added.
It came to light that the required land is currently in possession of the Revenue Department, formalities to transfer it to GTDC will be done shortly. It will be built on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode, but all the required permissions will be facilitated through GTDC.
The Revolutionary Goans Chief went on to state that the current BJP-led government in the name of development is running a real estate business. “They have finished our hills, fields and every piece of land in the state. They claim these projects will generate employment. I would like to ask how many Goans are employed at Mopa or at GTDC. These are all pre-election stunts prior to the upcoming assembly elections and northing but vote bank politics in the state,” pointed out Manoj.
“The people coming under Below Poverty Line (BPL) first of all do not even have a house of their own here. If there is so much land available why not given 100 sq mts to each Goan who does not have a home in this area. This would be a better pre-election stunt rather than announcing the setting up of an entertainment village,” he added.
First of all during the tourist season there are several music, food festival and other events held in the capital city and coastal belt which causes a lot of inconvenience to the locals.
“Ajgaonkar is saying that it will have facilities to conduct small, medium-scale entertainment events and even maybe electronic dance music (EDM) festivals in the future. He claims it is a good plan to have a designated entertainment venue in Mandrem as it is frequented by tourists. In the name of entertainment village everything will be introduced here including sex, drug and prostitution. Revolutionary Goans condemn this announcement and will support the locals of Mandrem to scrap this project,” signed off Manoj.