MARGAO
Even as the Goa Escheats, Forfeiture and Bona Vacantia Bill, 2024 has raised many an eyebrow over the government’s intention behind the Bill, the village panchayats have now set their eyes on the properties under the Bill.
In fact, Sunday saw members of the Navelim gram Sabha adopting an unanimous resolution demanding that the government hand over the land coming into its possession as per the provisions of the Bill to the village panchayats to meet their development requirements.
The Bill seeks to provide for taking over of charge, management, administration, supervision, custody and disposal of property vested in the State of Goa qua ultima heres under Article 296 of the Constitution of India by escheat or lapse, or as bona vacantia and unclaimed property.
The government has so far identified around 60 such properties located across the state without having any legal heirs.
With majority of the village Panchayats facing land crunch and with the cumbersome land acquisition process stalling acquisition of land, the gram sabha members of Navelim have requested the government to hand over such land to the village for development purposes.
The gram sabha also discussed the burning issue of road safety and traffic in the village and the dangers posed to the school children caused by the traffic congestion.
In this respect, the meeting decided to hold a joint meeting between representatives of the schools and officials of the district administration and traffic police to resolve the issue.
The long-pending demand of a bus stop on the Navelim-Cuncolim route also came up for discussion. While reservations were raised by some members to the new bus stop, there were others who came out in support of the bus stop. Since there was no unanimity on the issue, it was decided to write to the district Collector, South to work out a solution.
