Panaji: Bharat Mukti Morcha (BMM) faxed a letter to Pope Francis on Friday afternoon, asking for his intervention in the alleged injustice meted out to Vanxim Islanders by Church authorities that sold, and through deed of transfer, transferred rights over paddy fields, water bodies and horticulture land including land that has dwelling houses without consulting Vanxim Islanders.
BMM in their letter stated that they had faxed a letter to the Apostolic Nuncio in India, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio in New Delhi but after receiving no reply and finding the situation on the ground deteriorating, decided to write directly to the Vatican, The Times of India reported.
” The broker has signed a joint development agreement on August 11, 2009 with corporate bodies and the agreement has plans laid out to use the island for a golf course, five star hotel, luxury villas, resorts and private marinas. “Then in 2010 began the times of bullying and pressurizing, bribing and co-opting of the Vanxim islanders to surrender our rights to cultivate paddy,” states the letter signed by Maggie Silveira, president, Goa unit, BMM.