Thaindian News

Panaji, Dec 8 (IANS) Freedom fighters who battled the Portuguese before the colonial rulers were eventually chased out of Goa by the Indian Army plan to boycott the high-profile celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the liberation Dec 19.

All Goa Freedom Fighters Association (AGFFA) president Nagesh Karmali told IANS that the freedom fighters were riled by corruption, the inability of the state government to resolve a contentious evacuee property issue and the apathy of the Congress-led coalition government.

“We will not attend the government function to commemorate 50 years of Goa’s liberation,” said Karmali. The AGFFA represents the last few hundreds of Goan freedom fighters.

“This government has let the state down on the issue of the medium of instruction and the evacuee property issue,” he added.

Nearly 50 residents from Mayem village, 30 km from here, are on a hunger strike since last week, demanding property rights to the land they have settled on for generations.

A large portion of the village has been notified as evacuee property by the Goa government.

The land was originally owned by a Count or Comte of Portuguese origin who migrated to Portugal after the Indian Army liberated the state in 1961, leaving the land ownership right issue in question.

The medium of instruction issue refers to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat’s decision to allow financial grants to English medium schools, bringing them on par with schools where regional languages are used.

“For 50 years now, people have been demanding a right to the land they are living on. Constant assurances by Kamat over the last five years have come to nothing,” Karmali said.

“The government has also sounded the death knell for regional languages by giving grants to English language schools. This government is an enemy of the state,” he said.

“Corruption in Goa is at an all-time high and so is illegal mining and this government is just staring mute at all this,” he added.

The state government has charted out a string of programmes in the week leading up to Dec 19, the day in 1961 when the Indian Army marched into Goa and defeated the Portuguese, which had ruled Goa for over 450 years.