VASCO
Comunidade of Chicalim - Vaddem - Chicolna - Dabolim on Sunday convened a special meeting of its members to discuss the proposal they received to allot one lakh square metres of land to develop a garden.
The general body of the Chicolna comunidade later rejected the proposal and said that no comunidade land would be given on such a large scale. Around 26 members attended the meeting of which, 24 rejected the proposal.
Attorney Mahendra Salkar said that there was no way that he as the attorney would give away land, no matter which minister or government official was asking for it.
"The proposal for allotment of one lakh square metres of land for a garden was placed by the managing committee, but the members and general body have rejected it. No one has any idea of what garden is being developed and till such time that members don't get land themselves, we will not give land to anyone. The government must demolish all the encroachment on comunidade land before placing a proposal with us," said Salkar.
"There is a legal procedure which has to be followed and without this, no minister or government official can take the land for any proposal. This is the land of our forefathers, and we have to safeguard it and put it to good use. We have seen that there is vast encroachment on comunidade land, and they later claim that members are hand in gloves with encroachers. The fact is that the encroachers build structures and the government supports them behind. We as members do not get even 500 sq metres of land, leaving us to wonder if we are here only to safeguard this land while the government just wants to take it for its proposals," said Salkar.
"We as comunidade members are ready to regularise the encroachers, but they have to pay for it. The issue is that the administrator is not ready to send the proposal to the government. Even members are asking for plots for which they are ready to pay. To date, no revenue minister has allotted shareholders any comunidade plots, and has only given assurances, but we are confident that Babush Monseratte will help us and allot one plot each for the shareholders of the comunidade," said Salkar.
A shareholder Alia Heredia said that a special meeting was called, and many of the members were not aware of the details regarding the garden that has been proposed on comunidade land.
"Why do we need such a huge land of one lakh sq metres for a garden at a time when shareholders for several generations are not getting plots. The plots are just being given away and we want to know the real agenda behind giving away such a huge tract of land. No one can go ahead with any proposal of giving away huge land till members agree because this is community land and the government is not a part of the comunidade. We as shareholders are not getting any land, and plots are being purchased illegally. We have rejected the proposal. We have to safeguard the land, and while they say garden now, there may be structures coming up suddenly and we will not allow this," said Heredia.
