Front against migrants' influx formed

Panaji, Aug 3 (UNI) A peoples' movement christened ''Save Goa Front'' seeking regulation of migrants influx encouraged by vested political interests to ''preserve Goan identity for posterity'', has been constituted here today.

Announcing its formation, its convenor and noted advocate Aires Rodrigues told media persons that the members would constitute constituency-level committees to mobilise public opinion and intensify the movement against the politicians responsible for encouraging influx of migrants into Goa.

''The migrant population would soon outnumber the ethnic Goans like in Assam, with the corrupt politicians offering the migrants with readymade ration cards and election photo identity cards much before their arrival into Goa for political expediency,'' he said.

Alleging by-passing of all rules and regulations, he said the authorities at the instance of the unscrupulous politicians have been issuing cards to safeguard their vote banks at the cost of the ''sons of the soil''.

''The manner in which voters' registration was being carried out was a gameplan as most of Goa's unscrupulous politicians are afraid of the Goan voters. For their political security, they have been creating a migrants' vote bank to neutralise the local voters,'' he said.

Seeking imposition of a ceiling on land to be sold to non-Goans, Mr Rodrigues urged all the political parties to make their stand clear on the migrant population issue before the coming elections to the state legislative assembly next year.

Alleging large scale corruption in recruitment to government service, he deplored that percentage of Goans employed in Konkan Railway was ''dismal and deplorable'' though Goan land had been used only as a ''corridor to connect Maharashtra to Karnataka''.

This sorry state of affairs should not continue and the Front would launch an awareness campaign and chalk out a strategy through a peaceful agitation to ''save Goa and keep Goa Goan,'' Mr Rodrigues added.

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