PANAJI
The fellowship for Gauncares of Comunidades held at the Xavier Centre for Historical Research at Porvorim on Sunday resolved to fight the recently passed law to regularise illegal houses on their land.
A set of lawyers advised the gathering on the legal aspects of the law and also answered queries raised by participants on several other related issues.
Another significant decision taken at the fellowship was for Comunidades to survey their land and prepare a record of their land besides information on illegal encroachments.
Several comunidades do not have a record of the land they own and the panel of lawyers advised them to prepare these records by obtaining survey plans and maps from the department of Land Survey.“Find and survey your lands with the help of these plans/ maps. It will help to know how much land is owned by the community and how much has been encroached,” one of the lawyers advised.
The panel of lawyers also guided the officials and components of the Comunidades on how to fight the legislation.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas, termed the legislation to regularise illegal structures on their land an abuse of legislative power which ignores the rule of law and Supreme Court rulings.
“If the Goa government loves these people who have committed the illegalities then it should acquire these illegally occupied plots and compensate Comunidades at market values prescribed in the acquisition law. After that hand it over to the illegal occupant via sale deeds,” Viegas said.
