Even as the land grab trials continue in the State, the BJP-led government is yet to act upon its own measures to prevent such multi-crore scams. In March, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, in his Budget speech, proposed a series of reforms, including linking the Record of Property Rights with the Aadhaar number - a unique identification number - to prevent land fraud cases. However, ten months down the line, nothing has moved in that direction.
As many as 44 FIRs were registered by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) involving 93 land parcels and properties measuring 1.5 lakh square metres across Goa related to the land scams. More FIRs have been filed now, a month after Justice VK Jadhav (retd) headed a one-man commission submitted its report on the multi-crore land grabbing cases.
It is also interesting to point out that the government has not made public the commission’s findings or recommendations, even one and a half months after the submission of the report.
In his budget speech tabled on the Floor of the House, Sawant had said that the government’s seriousness in dealing with land-related fraud in the State is evident from establishing SIT and the appointment of a one-man commission.
According to the speech, “CM proposes to link the Record of Rights with the Aadhaar number as a step towards preventing land fraud in the state.” Not just this, but the government also announced plans to set up modern Records Rooms for all the talukas and develop mobile applications to locate and identify properties on a real-time basis.
When contacted, Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate said, “Everything won’t happen overnight, we are working on it. It is not an easy task.”
He said that once the land records are linked to the Aadhaar number, the owner of the property gets all messages related to any changes in the property rights.
“We are also working towards upgrading the online property register, wherein the financial institutions and quasi-judicial decisions related to the concerned properties would be linked. This will help the buyer to get all the details about the properties before entering into any deal. Everything is aimed towards bringing transparency in the land-related transactions,” the Minister said.
However, the Minister failed to give any deadline as to when these reforms will be put in place or made functional.
