During the past month or two, several cases of land scams and illegalities in Goa have come to light, with the coming of the new BJP govt to power. To start with, a can of worms was opened by Town and Country Planing (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane, that has revealed several illegalities and land conversions in the previous Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of some districts in North Goa, wherein large areas of orchard land were transferred to settlement areas and sold to builders. This was followed by several cases of land scams, involving fraudulent sale deeds of land belonging to dead persons and those living abroad by forging signatures , fake PAN cards , etc. Only today, we have read that around 11,000 hotels in Goa are running illegally without registration, and bringing a loss of revenue to the govt. The question therefore is what was the Goa govt doing all these years and suddenly we see a crackdown on such illegalities. All this, besides thriving illegal dance bars, spas and prostitution dens, makes Goa an ideal paradise for fraudsters and scamsters.
