LOCALS SAY VERNA INDUSTRIAL ESTATE A BANE

The state's prestigious Verna industrial estate has come under the scanner of villagers who say "Our lives have become miserable with the wanton depletion of groundwater, little land available for the future with the government continuing with land acquisitions, and the famous river Sal soon to be a part of history with the springs drying up”.
Voice of villagers - the organization spearheading the campaign, is extremely sore with the local Congress MLA of Loutolim, Aleixo Sequeira, who incidentally is also the environment minister. Representations before him are to no avail, lamented Edwin Pinto, convenor of the organization. Pinto said he has dashed letters to the GIDC strongly opposing land acquisition and making a strong plea before several authorities to prevent the acquisition of several thousand square metres of land.
Citing an instance of a whopping six lakh sq m of land proposed to be acquired in various phases in and around Verna, including land for a substation of the electricity department, Pinto said, in a letter to the MD, GIDC, "In this regard, we wish to register our objection to land acquisition on the Verna plateau, and in fact in the rest of the industrial estates in Goa, until the Regional Plan 2021 is finalized.'' Copies of the letter have been submitted to the chief town planner, to refrain from giving NOC for land acquisition, to the town and country planning department, Margao, for information and necessary action and to the collector, South Goa, to refrain from allotting land until the RP 2021 is notified and gazetted. The letter to the GIDC board of directors questions the "ongoing land acquisition,'' and states, "We also draw your attention to the fact that now that the SEZ land comprising over 35 lakh square metres will revert back to GIDC as per the decision of the Goa government published in the gazette of July 16, 2009, there appears to be no genuine reason for further land acquisition in the area.'' Pinto and others like Antonio Fernandes and John Philip of Cortalim and Nagoa pointed out further that there is hardly any buffer zone going to be left with the industrial units virtually eating into "our spaces." The development of the industrial area is in such a manner that it will soon merge with the residences of the villagers. "For example, the current boundary of Ms Lupin Ltd., is hardly 50 m away from the nearest residence," the letter to the GIDC board of directors states. Pinto said the increasing incidents of crime in the area were a cause of concern and so is the increase in the population of migrant labourers. Nagoa, Verna, Loutolim, Cortalim and Quelossim- the five villages that constitute Voice of Villagers-are grossly affected, said Judith Rebelo of Verna. "The health officials have even pointed out that wells in Consua village are getting contaminated with e-coli bacteria,'' she pointed out. Zerina Da Cunha from Nuvem expressed the immediate need to look into "around 200 illegal bore wells dug by the industrial units. Only a few say three to four could be legal,'' she said and added, "with so many illegal diggings, the ground water table has been affected grossly and there is a problem with supply of potable water. Earlier, the springs fed the villages and yes, we had the lovely river Sal. But now we can see the waterbodies shrinking and most dangerously several springs drying up."