From Sanjay Borkar in Margao for Daijiworld News Netwrok - Goa

Margao, Feb 19: Now onwards, it would be not easy for migrant workers to erect huts in Goa. As state chief minister Pratapsingh Rane has directed the government officers concerned to look into the matter, thereby ensuring the number of huts will not rise to turn the place into slums.

While expressing shock over increasing number of slums in Margao, he urged the local MLA and power minister Digambar Kamat to adopt a cautious approach towards it.

"I don’t want to see Goa becoming another Mumbai. In Mumbai there are so many slums that a person can’t move around. Slowly now migrants workers are settling down in the coconut fields across the state by erecting huts, as some landlords allow them to gain easy money," said Rane while addressing a function at Margao.

As the fields are being used for residential use, some landlords apply for conversion of land for residential purposes. If this happens Goa will not remain verdant, he added.

He also said that these people staying in the field are easily affected by the floods and the government had to compensate them, as it happened recently in Margao.