KARWAR: A day after the Goa government demolished 157 houses of Kannadigas on Baina beach in Goa, Uttara Kannada district In-charge Minister R V Deshpande spoke to Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and sought rehabilitation of the affected families.
In a statement on Sunday, Deshpande said Parsekar has promised help to the displaced families. When Manohar Parrikar was chief minister, he had assured of rehabilitating the Kannadiga families who were displaced then. But Parrikar failed to walk the talk.
Deshpande said Karnataka Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee has also spoken to his Goan counterpart on the matter and had requested that a centre be opened till the rehabilitation is complete. If Goa fails to open a rehabilitation centre, Karnataka will do so with the help of the Goa Kannada Sangha, he said.
Meanwhile, Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh visited Baina beach on Sunday and heard the grievances of the families. The residents told him that the houses were demolished without rehabilitating them.
Ghosh told Express that he will submit a factual report to the government in this regard. The DC said he spoke to the officials of the South Goa district administration, who told him that the encroachments have been cleared according norms and there was no contempt of court.
The South Goa district administration has also told him that it will send the details of the demolition drive to Uttara Kannada district administration on Monday. “I will give the versions of both the affected families and the Goa government in my report,” Ghosh added.