While a few people have been advocating christening the new Mopa airport after the late Dayanand Bandodkar, some other people have suggested the names of popular Goan personalities like Jack Sequeira, Abbé de Faria and so on.
Morjim gram sabha resolved in favour of naming the new Mopa airport after Dayanand Bandodkar, Goa's first chief minister, and yesterday the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) also resolved to demand the same for the new airport.
Subhash Velingkar, former RSS leader, is in the camp of naming the airport after Dayanand Bandodkar as evidenced by his series of tweets about the same on Twitter. He was unavailable for comment.
Cleofato Coutinho, a constitutional expert and lawyer from Goa, opined that public projects should be named after the area where they are built. There is no need for any arguments and debates about christening these projects with the name of a famous personality or politician. The issue of naming Mopa airport is getting politicized unnecessarily.
Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, writer and former editor, said “I think the proposed name should honour the geographical area where the airport is coming up, rather than a personality who had no role to play in its construction. If Dabolim airport suits the existing one at Dabolim, why should it not be the same for Mopa airport?”
Amit Naik, a Goa-based Konkani rapper and singer, feels public institutions and projects should not be named after politicians. If any person has worked and excelled in the field of science or sports, or for any noble cause, then that person’s name could be considered. But the names of politicians should not be given to any public utility projects, because these politicians are only fulfilling their duty to the electorate. They are not doing a favour to the public, he added.
Congress leader from Dabolim Viriato Fernandes also expressed his views on the Mopa airport naming issue. Fernandes suggested that a list of corrupt politicians needs to be made, and public projects should be named after these corrupt politicians so that the people of Goa understand who made money in a particular project. He also opined that Mopa should be named after the most corrupt politician if it is to at all be named after a person in politics.