MARGAO
The United Goans Foundation have urged Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate not to take any recourse to legalise illegal encroachments on Comunidade lands, saying it would amount to contempt of the Supreme Court’s judgement on common lands, as well as in contempt to the rights of All Original Goans who are stakeholders in the respective comunidades.
In fact, UGF President Dr Ashish Kamat warned that any such action against the interests of the comunidades and its constituents shall constrain the NGO to seek relief from the court as may be deemed necessary without any further notice to the government.
“We would like to mention that the comunidades were existing to protect the rights of Gaonkars over the common lands and over a period of time, individuals from out of the State of Goa have squatted on such lands and either turned them into slums or have encroached upon prime land. The Gaonkars on the other hand have been reduced to living in crowded spaces due to their preference to be law abiding citizens,” Kamat said in his letter to the Revenue Minister.
He added: “Before contemplating on any action with regards to initiating a bill or amendment to regularise illegal structures on comunidade lands, the government would be better served to undertake an audit of all comunidades, its original land assets, the present status of those land assets and compile the data.”
Kamat has called for a proper study on the encroachers at respective locations so as to understand from when they have encroached, are the houses legalised and how, details of members living, are they paying any rent and to whom, are slum lords operating so as to further the encroachments and to gain financially from them, etc, or whether people have rented premises in one place and moved to another location as part of modus operandi to usurp. “This exercise should be conducted by the government along with representatives of local comunidade, Village Development Committees, local NGOs and local governing bodies, etc so that there is no scope left for manipulation,” he added.
Kamat further pointed out that it would be even more credible if a retired High Court judge of good standing is made to head such an initiative. “Only after all such data is collected and documented as on 2021 and compared to the data of Survey of Comunidades undertaken as of 15/06/2000 will the government understand the extent of such blatant encroachments on comunidade lands,” he said, adding ‘all such data should be made public so that people understand the status of the comunidades and then should the government of Goa in consultations with the original Goans try to find a solution to the problem’.
