Panaji, February 21 Police allegedly forcibly removed Revolutionary Goans Party MLA Viresh Borkar from the Town and Country Planning (TCP) office here along with several others on Saturday morning after they had been protesting overnight against the conversion of village land into a settlement zone.
The legislator accused the police of manhandling him and submitted a motion of privilege against the concerned officials.
Following the police action, the legislator and the villagers chose a different location to continue their protest against the government, while TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane refused to revoke the order, calling the protesters "blackmailers."
The protesters claimed that 84,000 square metres of land in the Palem-Siridao village in the St Andre assembly constituency in North Goa was converted into a settlement zone from a non-settlement zone by the TCP department by misusing provisions in section 39-A of the Act.
On Friday, the residents of the village marched to the TCP department office to hold the protest. Around 100 villagers, mostly women, spent the night there, demanding the immediate revocation of the order.
On Saturday morning, a police team went to the TCP office and forcibly removed MLA Borkar from the site along with others. Police personnel were seen lifting the legislator from the spot and taking him out of the office.
Speaking about the incident, the MLA said, "This kind of behaviour is unacceptable. As a legislator, I cannot be manhandled by the police, especially since the assembly session has already been summoned by the Governor. No such action can be taken against me without the permission of the Speaker."
The budget session of the state assembly is scheduled to begin on March 6.
Following the continued protest, Borkar submitted a motion of privilege against the police officials who "manhandled" him.
"I have spoken to the Speaker on the phone and he has categorically told me that he was not informed about the police action beforehand," he said.
Several other leaders, including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Venzy Viegas, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Sunil Kawthankar, AAP's former Goa chief Amit Palekar, extended support to Borkar and joined the protest at Azad Maidan here.
Borkar announced that he would launch an indefinite fast to press for the demand for revocation of the land use plan.
Responding to the protest, Minister Rane said that the government will not revoke the land use order.
"Let them (protesters) stay in the office. We are not going to revoke it. They are blackmailers," the minister told reporters in Sattari taluka on Saturday.