MARGAO
Tribal organizations have slammed the government for the steep increase in the rates of survey forms and survey plans, demanding a roll back in the rates, saying the common man would be the worst hit with the fees hiked by a whopping 200 times.
Leaders of the Adivasi Sanghatana, Quepem, Scheduled Tribes Association, Sao Jose de Areal, GAKUVED Association told the media that the government should work out a reasonable fee for the forms instead of effecting the hike by around 200 times.
Adv John Fernandes of Adivasi Sanghatana termed the recent amendment to the Goa, Daman and Diu Land Revenue (Inspection, search and supply of copies of land records) Rules, 1969 is unjustifiable, and carried out without studying the ground realities.
Saying that the survey forms and plan are the important/necessary documents as far as land records are concerned, John, however, said the government by notification dated March 27 has increased the fees on the certified copies of these and other documents by almost 200 times.
As per the 2010 Amendment, the fee charged on the certified copy of survey form/survey plan was Rs 15 and Rs five for an additional page. “The government has now increased the fee from Rs 15 to Rs 45 and Rs 15 for an additional page,” he said.
Similarly, John stated that the government has increased the fees for survey plan from Rs 60 to a whopping Rs 180 per plan/sub-division. “The same position with regard to certified copies of other documents also. The increase in the fees is unjustifiable, without studying the ground realities and against the interest of the common man,” he said.
Peter Viegas, Pobre Fernandes and Rupesh Velip said that the move will affect the tribal people the most because of their small farm holdings. “The exorbitant fees on certified copies will affect the common man/tenant and not the big landlords. The tenant will be the worst hit because they are cultivating on
small holdings, having dozens of sub-divisions,” they pointed out.
John cited the instance of Ambaulim village, where a tenanted land admeasuring 15,000 square meters has around 300 odd holdings and they are surveyed accordingly.
Saying that a similar position prevails in other talukas as well, they have made a fervent plea to the government to do a re-think and roll back the fees or modify the rates.
