Goa on the brink of ethnic dilution
PTI, PANAJI | 13 June 2013 14:29 IST
Goa is virtually standing on the brink of "ethnic dilution" as unrestricted migration from other states is threatening to reduce the native population to an "alienated microscopic minority" by 2021, according to an assessment by the state government.
"Unrestricted migration and whole-scale transfer of land is beginning to submerge the unique Goan identity. Though we have been noticing this trend in the last decade or so, it has now assumed menacing proportions. The apprehension is that by 2021 the migrant population will outnumber local Goans".
This apprehension was expressed by an all-party delegation, led by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, which met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Wednesday evening.
Underlining the gradual influx of migrants who are settling down in the coastal state, a hot tourist destination, the memorandum submitted to the prime minister rued that cosmopolitan character of the state has been grossly misunderstood.
The copy of the memorandum was made available to media.
The Parrikar-led delegation met Singh and placed before him the demand for special status empowering the local government to enact laws restricting sale of land to non-goans.
"The apprehension is that Goans will become an alienated microscopic minority within their own State," reads the petition that has taken the stock of the migration trend right from the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rulers in 1961.
Only 51 per cent people now speak the official Konkani language whereas the collective proportion of Konkani and Marathi-speaking people is two-third of the total population, which means one third of the population is of migrant settlers, the state policy-makers said quoting the latest Census data.
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