MARGAO
By resolution No. 3722, the Margao Municipal Council had in 2009 unanimously decided to acquire the ancestral house of the great Goan Nationalist Dr Francis Luis Gomes to protect and preserve the house in ruins for posterity.
Thirteen-years down the line, the house of Dr Gomes continues to lie in ruins at Colmorod-Navelim in the jurisdiction of Margao Municipal Council. One of the reasons cited for the present state of the house is that the ancestral house is owned by a private party and over a dispute between the present owner and a tenant.
In fact, come September 30 and one could come across freedom fighters and politicians of all hues assembling at his memorial in front of the South Goa Administrator of Communidade building to pay tributes to Dr Gomes, who had represented Portuguese India in the Portuguese Parliament from 1861-1869.
Sadly, all plans proposed by historians as well as citizens to acquire the house in question and conserve the same for posterity lay grounded over the ownership issue.
Records show that after the Margao Municipal Council adopted the resolution to acquire Dr Gomes’ ancestral house, correspondence was made by the civic body to departments such as the Land Survey and SGPDA, but the land acquisition process simply could not kickstart till date.
Former Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho said he had initiated the process for restoring and conserving Dr Gomes’ ancestral house for posterity via a resolution. He, however, lamented that the resolution could not make much headway for the last one decade.
