Bengaluru: Although Karnataka is keen on buying 30 acres of land in Goa to provide houses to Kannadigas evicted from near its Baina beach, its plans are unlikely to succeed, according to a senior Goan bureaucrat.
“Goa’s Department of Town and Planning may not accept Karnataka’s application for permission to buy 30 acres of land to rehabilitate the Kannadigas evicted from near the Baina beach. The state may not want to encourage settlement of migrants,” the bureaucrat told DC.
CM Siddaramaiah had announced a few days ago that Karnataka would buy land in Goa and build houses for the displaced Kannadigas on 20 ftx30 ft sites. He had also instructed the chairman of the Border Development Authority, Baburao Chinchansur, to prepare a detailed report in three days on the number of families involved, the land required for rehabilitation and the availability of land in Goa.
Responding to Karnataka’s plans, the Goan bureaucrat claimed no land was available in and around Baina beach and even if it was, it would cost around Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 per sq.ft. “When our government is short of land even for its own projects, it may not be possible for it to find land for Karnataka to rehabilitate the displaced Kannadigas,” he maintained, adding that if Karnataka was scouting for land near Baina bench, it had to obtain a No Objection Certificate from the Coastal Zone Management Authority to build houses in an eco-sensitive zone.
“The authority has denied permission for many projects of the Goa government in the area to protect the marine life along its coastline. Moreover, Goa being a small state, it cannot be expected to provide basic amenities like electricity, roads, drinking water and underground drainage to the hundreds of houses that Karnataka plans to build near its beach,” he said.
