http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=12304
Unquiet Village Goa THE lynching of 32-year-old Prithviraj Rane, son of landlord and freedom fighter, Mr Krishnarao Rane by a mob at the Saleli village in Sattari taluka on Wednesday was a gory incident that threatens to rip apart the serene, moderate and peace-loving image of Goans. The widescale violence, which not only brought the death of Prithviraj Rane but also injuries to several police officials of various ranks and damage to vehicles, raises the question whether policing in Goa has been concentrating too much on the urban areas and not paying any attention to the rural areas where agrarian conflicts can erupt into such ghastly tumults. The Rane family which owns most of the land in the village had been engaged in a bitter feud with the villagers for more than 10 years and both sides had filed a number of complaints and counter-complaints during these years with the police. Rane’s murder should hopefully arouse the state administration in general, which includes home, revenue and law departments, and the police in particular from their indifference to land disputes in the villages. They tend to presume that in Goa agrarian questions do not exist. Else, how could it be possible that the simmering discontent at Saleli did not come to the notice of the administration— more so when Mr Krishnarao Rane has been a political worker( he acted as the election agent of the Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane for some elections)? What is really disturbing to know that in spite of the dispute with complaints and counter-complaints dragging for more than ten years the local administration did not think it proper to settle the dispute. The intensity of the animosity between the Ranes and the villagers could be simply gauged from the fact that the villagers were united in their fight against Mr Rane. This is clearly manifest in the manner the villagers attacked the police personnel who had gone to the village on that day. If the Ranes allegedly acted with the stubbornness and arrogance of landlords, the villagers who allegedly killed the young Rane indulged in medieval barbarism. In spite of being warned of possible attack, the younger Rane chose to go to the site where he had installed his new stone-crusher. Obviously he was thinking that the villagers would not harm him. Instead of trying to settle the matter with intervention of government officials and panchayat, the villagers, finding him alone, attacked and lynched him. It was a brutal, uncivilised act. It is unfortunate that the incident took place even after filing of a complaint with the local Valpoi police the previous day by the Ranes. Mr Krishnarao Rane in his complaint had mentioned that over a property dispute a group of 15 persons stoned his house and that of Ms Sunita Bai Rane. They injured Ms Pooja Prithviraj Rane besides damaging a cowshed and three vehicles which were parked outside their house at Saleli. In his complaint Mr Rane had also mentioned that some persons from Saleli Bondawada formed an unlawful assembly and were armed with stones and pelted stones at their house. But the police did not act on the complaint. Probably, like the other concerned departments, the police too nursed the view that in an urbanised state, crime of a serious nature, like the murder of a big and powerful man in the village, would not take place. Else, there is no plausible reason why the police ignored the several complaints received from the Ranes and the villagers. Had they acted in right earnest, probably the police officials might not have to suffer this unprecedented humiliation; nearly 30 policemen, including SP, DSP and inspectors were assaulted by the villagers. There is no doubt that the Saleli incident is a fall-out of pursuing of an overly urban approach to governance. Hopefully, the Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane, in whose constituency this happened would re-sensitize the state administration to the outstanding agrarian disputes in the villages so that gory crimes like this do not occur. The villagers of Saleli were given some mundakar land. But they refrained from occupying it, as they could not use the land for any other purpose except agriculture. If agriculture does not interest villagers, a good part of the blame goes to the government which has failed to make it a viable vocation. With increasing pressures and demands on land, Saleli is bound to recur. Even after forty years of Liberation the Goa government has not succeeded in executing land reforms that would have settled all disputes. The government must reorient its approach toward the rural problems and set up a special cell to study the outstanding disputes regarding land in the villages and solve them amicably by legal means. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
