Four faces of Mopa’s fight for justice against a law which is good
Law and justice are on opposite sides of the court in Mopa.In continuing with our process on tracking the Mopa land acquisition closely-the biggest ever in post liberation Goa, the law of the land has been followedwith proper tick marks against all stages of land acquisition as it existstoday. But the fi ne print is not in print. It lies on the land of Mopa. And inthe faces of those who are only now coming to terms with the fact that theywill never get the value of their land and future livelihoods, when the awards(compensation) for their lands are announced after the process is legallycomplete till the last stage.
So where did law and justice part ways? At a crossroadcalled Section 5 A of the Land Acquisition Act, the mid way stage in the elevenstage land take over process by the government for “public purposes”. This isthe only stage where those who lose the land (and this through severalinterpretations include those who till the land as tenants) get a 30 daysperiod to record their objections and demands which the state is duty bound toput on record. It is however not law bound to act on any of them.
And in the slip between law and duty, the village of Mopafell into a deep crevice with no exit route to a future of homes and cultivableland and livelihoods, things they take for granted, at present
When the land acquisition officer came calling at periodicintervals between October and November villagers met them no one knows if allthe 763 land losers did. What emerged were simple demands from the village folkwho do not know what land acquisition or public purpose is. Yet what theywanted when they got to know that their lands would be taken away, made sense.Cultivable land for cultivable land and money for the loss of fruit bearingtrees calculated for 100 years since each tree serves two generations. In goodfaith, they believed that these non negotiables would be discussed further withthem for detail and settled before things went ahead.
Little did they know that the non negotiables- far frombeing discussed may have at best emerged as a small footnote in the Section 5 Aa report of the land officer, a foot note the government is not even compelledto look at. This, dear Goans is where Law and Justice went their separate ways.
Anthony D’Sousa, former state land acquisition officer (SLAO)and current OSD to the Revenue Minister explained that section 5 A “is actuallycompilation of a report where SLAO hears people’s objections, analyses theircompensations, compares the land acquisition proposed with actual needs, it ishis discretion to decide what and how to compensation. People’s demands are notbinding on him”, Of the 763, there are at least eighty one who have definitely notgiven their consent to give up their lands. They are all residents of Varkhand,Casarvarnem and Chandel village panchayats of Pernem Taluka
The notification under Section 6 for declaring these landsbeing acquired for public purpose (with the built in assumption that villagersconsent has been taken under Section 5 A) was announced on January 10 and madepublic through newspapers on January 17.
Yet two weeks later, the residents live in uncertainty and fearas they have not yet formally been conveyed individually that their ancestralhomes and farm lands are being taken away. The betrayal is obvious as theseresidents, half of them landowners and rest tenants with rights have betweenthem over five lakh square metres of land which comprises of over 25% of whatthe Government wants to acquire.
On May 7 last year, High Court of Bombay at Goa (Panjim) haddirected the Government to give fair hearing and take into consideration theobjection of eighty one of the 763 land owners and tenants who were resisting theirland being acquired forcibly under Section 17 (a) of Land Acquisition Act 1894.
“We don’t know of the publication of any notification as we havenot yet received any notice”, says Dhaku Bhiku Varak of Dhangarwada splitbetween Varkhand and Casarvarnem Panchayats. Over a dozen families in this sleepylittle hamlet, just a few hundred metres away from where Civil AviationSecretary N K Srivastava made a quick trip last week, will lose their tilling rightsand homes to the proposed airport as Government forcibly takes away their land.
“The SLAO may have just made a report for the sake of makingit for High Court’s sake. If the government was fair, it would have taken ourconsent”, informs Sandip Kambli of Shemanache Advan. Kambli who is the mostvisible face of the protest against Mopa, himself a land owner, “Even if theyhave had a facile hearing where are the assurances, where is the report andwhere is our consent of giving up our lands for public purpose”, asks Kambli.
The Government’s hurry is justifiable because it wants to beatthe Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 that isexpected to be introduced in the Parliament this budget session. The bill whichis far more stringent on consent and compensation, hitherto non existent.
Getting the Mopa lands signed sealed and delivered to thePPP vehicle without another encounter with the public, is the government mostimportant private purpose has found favour across party lines, If passed wouldmean that Mopa Land Acquisition will fall flat as the new Act will be withretrospective effect.
