Can one buy a square metre of settlement land in the bustling Navelim village for Rs 4,212.75 or for that matter a square metre of land in adjoining Dramapur village for Rs 2,822?
the goan I network
MARGAO
No, not at all, those associated with the real estate business would say. This question, however, has been posed to Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari by land losers from these villages as the National Highway is bracing up to acquire land for expansion of the NH-17 between Dramapur-Navelim to
Nuvem-Verna.
An affected land loser Winston Rodrigues from Dramapur village has expressed shock at one of the hearings that the officials were asking land owners for their bank account numbers to deposit the meagre compensation the government was offering them as per the rates printed in the Official Gazette, Government of Goa, dated 3 January, 2013.
“This means that the rates are actually of the year 2012 or earlier. The registered values mentioned in this Gazette are the prevailing inaccurate circle rates which are notorious for being outdated and hence not even remotely indicative of the actual prevailing rates in the area. It is heavily undervalued and under-represents land purchase price to evade high stamp duties. The challenge is exacerbated in rural areas where there are fewer land transfers, like in my case here and therefore fewer registered sale deeds to use as reference points,” he said in his petition to the Union Surface Minister.
He further mentioned that NHAI had clearly stated that land prices have gone up 6 times since the year 2011. “I am now being given to understand that the Land Acquisition is done arbitrarily under the National Highways Act with malafide intentions and not under the LARR Act, 2013 to deprive land owners of the four times compensation as mandated under the LARR Act 2013 for rural areas which has been so proudly proclaimed by the NDA government and which we all lauded as a landmark bill whereby land owners would give their land willingly for development,” Winston said.
He said that Goa being a small State and where land is scarce, the government’s achievements could have been a model for the rest of the country, but lamented that “unfortunately you are depriving us of our right
to property which is a human right”.
When The Goan contacted the Land Acquisition officer, Signapurkar to shed light on the compensation worked out by the NHAI for the land losers, he pointed out that the market value cannot be the criteria for the compensation.
“We have to work out the compensation as per the laid down criteria. If anyone is aggrieved by the compensation, he can knock the doors of the court for enhancement,”
he said.
Winston, however, demanded to know why the land losers have to go to the court and burden the courts which already have a severe backlog of cases pending for years.
