Herald, Editorial, 3/06/08 The sheer size of land deals
It seems one Geetanjali Khosla, a real estate broker from New Delhi, has filed a case of cheating against one Sydney D’Souza and one Prashant Borkar, both of Alto Dabolim, for cheating. Ms Khosla’s complaint alleges that the two were supposed to pay her brokerage fees of Rs2.51 crore for a land deal, according to a memorandum of understanding between the two parties, but failed to do so. The deal in question was over a plot of land of two lakh square metres in Loliem, Canacona, and it was negotiated and concluded between October 2006 and July 2007. Both parties were brokers in the deal. The police have registered the complaint and are looking into it. Who is in the right and who in the wrong in this particular case will no doubt become clear in due course, but that is not the main point of interest in this story. Rather, it is the sheer size of this land deal. It shows just how huge real estate projects in Goa can be. It provides a sense of scale and perspective on the real nature of mega projects in the state. Usually, brokerage on land deals varies between two and four per cent of the cost of the land for sale. Assuming it was the higher figure, and that this amount was to be shared between the two sets of brokers, it appears that the total cost of the deal ought to have been around Rs 125 crore. This is a colossal amount of money. It indicates further, that a gigantic project must have been on the cards to justify such a large outlay on land itself. While the police have provided no information on the exact location of the land, such a large deal ought to have swelled the coffers of the government quite a bit in the way of stamp duty on registration of the sale deed. It is for the Revenue Department to now look into the deeds registered in Canacona and examine whether the proper stamp duty was paid or, as usual, if the deal has been grossly undervalued while registering it. Hopefully, the department will be proactive on this case. We should be under little doubt that this was one of the projects that was coloured red in the now scrapped Regional Plan 2011, since the dates of purchase roughly coincide with the dates of preparation of the plan that sought to make Goa one big concrete jungle. Thankfully, that conspiracy was defeated. But it is wise to remember that people with such huge wealth usually do not take kindly to their plans being thwarted, and will look for every opportunity to bring them back into reality. That is why it becomes all the more important that the process of drafting the Regional Plan 2021, now underway, is an open and transparent exercise. Every concerned citizen needs to take interest in the Plan, and constantly bring pressure to bear on the government to see that it does not surreptitiously allow the revival of the mega projects for whose exclusive benefit RP 2011 was manipulated. Those spearheading the Gram Sabhas in different villages to stop mega projects need to come together, not only to combine forces but also to speak in one united voice that any plan that determines Goa’s future must have a consultative process with its people. All planning must have a bottom-up approach, so that all the stakeholders - not just the builders, bureaucrats and politicians - have a say in the future of the state, its villages and its people. -- Question everything -- Karl Marx