PANAJI
A year after the Cabinet approved the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into land grabbing cases -- submitted in October 2023 -- Chief Minister Pramod Sawant tabled the exhaustive report in the Goa Legislative Assembly on Friday.
The one-man Commission, led by retired Justice V K Jadhav, laid down several recommendations to curb the menace including enacting a law to prohibit and penalize land grabbing, appointing a special court and other measures.
The Commission observed that there were organized attempts by certain individuals and groups to grab land -- whether belonging to the government, local authorities, religious or charitable institutions, Wakf boards, or private persons -- through force, deceit or other unlawful means.
“In order to prohibit the activities of land grabbing and in order to curb such unlawful activities of land grabbing, which adversely affect the public order, the effective legislation which includes the constitution of the Special Courts to ensure the speedy remedy is necessary. Unfortunately, at present there is no law in the State of Goa to prohibit the land grabbing activities and the connected matters thereto,” it stated.
In December 2024, the State government sent an official communiqué to the Registrar General, requesting that the proposal be placed before the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court for concurrence on the designation of a Special Court.
The report also referred to legislation in other states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam (which received Presidential assent on October 28, 2011), Karnataka and Gujarat (assented to by the Governor on October 8, 2020), insisting the need for a similar law in Goa.
“The Commission thus recommends the enactment of laws which may be called ‘The Goa Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2023,’ to prohibit and penalise the land grabbing in the State of Goa in a similar manner as per the laws enacted by the other States as discussed above,” it stated.
The findings exposed a complex web of criminal activities, including the connivance of certain government officials and fraudsters, and the forging of Portuguese calligraphy.
