All politicians with slum vote banks. So, no one’s complaining
Revenue Minister Francis D Souzahas added a new chapter and a whole new twist to Goa’s educated view of itsland ownership system. He went on to explain that the previous government’sresponse to the Supreme Court equating communidade land to community land wasincorrect.
Last week, D’Souza used hislegislative privilege to announce that he would “consider regularising illegalhouses that were built up to the year 2000 on communidade properties in Goa”.His response came even as matters are sub-judice in the Supreme Court.
D’Souza, a member and shareholderof Communidade of Mapusa, ignored Goa’s rich Gaunkari tradition and resorted torealpolitik. A large part of his regular vote bank consists of illegal settlerson Assagao, Mapusa and Corlim communidade lands. And the pattern is remarkable.Revenue Ministers of the past like Dr Wilfred Mesquita, Mauvin Godinho and JosePhilip D’Souza have tried to trample on the communidades.
“The stakes of the politicians inthe Assembly is more personal than political”, says Association of Componentsof Communidades “ Goa’s Secretary, Andre Antonio Pereira. Pereiraisn’t much off the mark. Goa’s successive governments have had stalwartssurviving on votes from illegal settlers on communidade land. While formerChief Minister Digambar Kamat had his vote hub on communidade land at Moti Dongor,former Revenue Minister and Vasco MLA Jose Philip D’Souza had his vote banksentrenched in New Vaddem and Mangor, both Communidade of Mormugao property.Even the incumbents in Vasco and newly formed Dabolim constituency CarlosAlmeida and Mauvin Godinho earned their votes by allowing squatters oncommunidades.
The Goa Government’s urgencyarises from a Supreme Court judgment last year, which simply directed all ChiefSecretaries of States to “prepare schemes for the eviction of illegal and unauthorisedoccupants of Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat, Poramboke, Shamlat land and these mustbe restored to the Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat for the common use ofvillagers of the village.” In Goa, these lands could simply qualify ascommunidade lands. An alarmed government hastily decided to redefine thecontext of community lands in Goa to ensure that communidade land escaped theambit of the Supreme Court judgement. At stake, is about 70% of Goa’s lands,spread over 223 communidades.
“The government cannot do much,as it does not have the mandate to take a decision with regards communidades”,says Pereira. Pereira has been single handedly championing the cause of Goa’scommunidade and fighting to come to an amicable yet legally tenable solution tothis crisis. “Please bear in mind that the Constitution of India does not havein its ambit the concept of communidade. If the Goa Government does not grantus the status of village community land, which is what it traditionally is,then it cannot regularise these structures either” confirms Pereira. Goa’scommunidade are run by a Code of Communidade, which is more of a custom innature than a law as such. The government’s decision could be legallyuntenable.
But Revenue Minister D’Souza isadamant that his decision is correct. He said “The incorrect response bythe previous government has unnecessarily embroiled communidade land in thecontroversy”. His government has filed an affidavit with this clarification.D'Souza said he is ready to look at cases of illegal houses built before 2000and the rest will depend on the Supreme Court's response.
Not in law earlier, so why in law now?
Not that the Goa Government hasnot tried to regularise illegal structures on communidade land in the past. In2001, the then Revenue Minister Jose Philip D’Souza even floated a scheme underwhich Rs 200 each was collected by the revenue department for regularisingstructures on communidade land. Over Rs 50 crores was collected as squattersmostly migrants rushed to ‘legalise’ their structures. Nothing came of it as theGoa Government’s Law Department hastily sent the file back as it was notlegally tenable. “Goa Government has wrongly applied provisions of GoaAgricultural Tenancy Act and Mundkarial Act to grab the lands of Comunidades ofGoa” alleges Pereira. His battle against Goa Government in the High Court ofBombay has so far scuttled its’ moves to legalise these structures.
