PANAJI
Over four decades after it initiated the move before the city survey, the Goa Yachting Association's bid to "correct records" related to their Clubhouse and a garage at its Dona Paula premises suffered a setback with the Deputy Collector declining to go into its merits and dismissing the matter.
GYA president Siddharth Satardekar lamented the development and in a statement said, the structures were officially handed over to the association by the Naval officer-in-charge, Commodore GK Nadkar on August 30, 1974. The Indian Navy was earlier running a sailing institute there since the Liberation of Goa in 1961.
According to Satardekar, in 1978, on discovering that the provisional revenue records showed that the premises were erroneously listed in the name of the Goa government's River Navigation Department, the GYA had made an application to the City Survey for corrections.
This more than 40-year-old application of the GYA was eventually forwarded to the Deputy Collector who recently passed the order without going into its merits and confirmed the area to stand in the name of the River Navigation Department.
Satardekar said after running from pillar to post for over 30 years the GYA was able to get the matter remanded back to the Deputy Collector's court with directions that it be re-heard and decided on merits through a 2018 quasi-judicial order of the Revenue Minister. The Deputy Collector however dismissed the application of the GYA at a time when the State's sports associations were struggling to stay afloat under financial duress with little or no assistance from the government, Satardekar lamented. "This comes as a huge blow to one of the oldest sports associations of Goa which has brought a huge amount of national, as well as international medals to the State and country," Satardekar said. Over the last year and a half, despite lack of financial support from the government, the GYA has won medals at national events, he added.
The move of the River Navigation Department (RND) in trying to snatch away the legitimate premises of the GYA is reportedly because the River Navigation Department feels the government can rake in revenue by leasing it to other agencies. The RND's premises in the heart of Panaji on the banks of the Mandovi river is leased to the off-shore casino operators who use it as a front-office for their day-to-day operations, earning the department revenues.
