Governor Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju has assured 'due consideration' of their concerns related to his granting assent to the government-sponsored legislation passed by the Goa legislative assembly to regularise illegal encroachments on Communidade land, NGO Goyche Fuddle Pilge Khatir (GFPK) has said.
A delegation of GFPK led by its president Jack Mascarenhas and which also included former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes, had met the Governor on Monday and urged him to withhold his assent to the bill citing legal and serious constitutional violations.
It said in a written communication which was handed over to Raju that the bill poses a grave threat to Goa's unique community land management system.
In their detailed communication to the Governor, GFPK said the bill violates the law in as much as it contravenes Supreme Court rulings, prohibiting regularisation of encroachments on community lands and the undermining of of Article 14 of the Constitution -- discriminating against law-abiding citizens by rewarding those illegally encroaching.
It also told the Governor that the legislation is a threat to Goa's heritage and ecology as it is a threat to the centuries-old Communidade system.
