MAPUSA
The components of various comunidades in the State met Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum objecting to the proposed amendments to the Code of Comunidades.
The components also informed the minister about various difficulties experienced by the comunidades in tackling encroachments and illegal constructions on comunidade land.
“The Revenue Department has brought out some proposed changes without waiting for the recommendation of the commission. These amendments are detrimental to the functioning of the comunidades, whose demise as an institution has slowly accelerated thanks to the previous amendments that have taken away the functioning power of the comunidades and reducing them to one of merely landlords. The latest amendment seeks to take away even the last remaining thread that holds the various comunidades together,” the memorandum stated, signed by 63 components.
It also said that while some amendments were pragmatic and reformist, there were attempts to insert regressive provisions such as extending the cut-off date for regularisation of encroachments and enabling acquisition of comunidade land without ganvkari consent.
The components also apprised the Revenue Minister of the pending renovation work of the Administrator s offices in North and South Goa and exploring avenues to raise revenues of these bodies.
They also stressed on making the Administrator's offices self-sufficient and improving the services to be provided for the efficient functioning of the elected committees.
Other issues like providing rights to a single girl child in the absence of male heirs and appointment of Zonal Advisory Committee to assist the respective Administrators were also discussed.
The Revenue Minister gave a patient hearing and promised to look into all these issues raised by the components by convening a meeting of the stakeholders along with the concerned revenue officials.
