Dears There is a debate going on on moira-net regarding 'The Land Bank' which perhaps goanetters would be interested in. It started when I got wind that the Moira Action Committee, was contemplating a 'Land Bank'
Here's what I provocatively posted: Dears I gate crashed into a meeting of the Moira Action Manch. The big-headed, money-flush members of the Manch were discussing an interesting proposal. They said that enough was enough – no more should any more lower middle class, and definitely no more poor types settle in Moira. Where their maids were to live, they did not say. And they no more want outside cash-rich Indians and NRIs who basically want to use Moira as a nest egg to buy land here. So they have decided to start a 'land bank'. Their premise is – they will buy up any land that is going at the sellers price, and then resell it only to those who fit their criteria of being the RIGHT MOIDEKARS. Could you moira-netters please comment on this proposal, and let us know if we should support this project or not? Cheers Augusto ................................................................................................................................................................ Venita Coelho who is a prominent member of Moira Action Committe clarified: "the proposal was that instead of letting land go to builders who will leave us no green we should try and start a land bank. The idea is that before the land gets sold to Acron types we check among friends, relatives, and NRI's and see if we can find any buyers who will build more sensibly and try and keep Moira the village we love. It is merely a desperate device to delay and slow the eventual concretization of Moira. The only criteria is a willingness not to take land and build large concrete monstrosities." ................................................................................................................................................................ Cecil Pinto responded: Dear Venita, Either you are intentionally pretending to be naive or you are serious about this absurd proposal. I hope it is the former. As a part-time occasional broker I often get requests from property sellers for a particular 'type' of buyer (eg Catholic, Goan, non-Delhi etc). I try to accommodate but eventually the sellers capitulate when the bigger figure is offered. For example if the seller wanted a Catholic buyer, not to disturb the Catholic neighbourhood, a few thousand rupees extra can easily make him accept a buyer of any religion, caste or sexual preference! Now you really think sellers are going to allow who buys their land to be decided by some Committee? Get real. Secondly what makes you think that your (I am addressing you now as a Land Bank Committee member) 'friends and relatives' are better owners of Moira land than say my friends and relatives or Sujay Gupta's friends and relatives? Are you on some moral or ethical higher plane than the rest of us? Are you yourself currently a better land owner than the rest of Moira land owners? Thirdly who decides the composition of the Moira Land Bank Committee? What makes you assume that you will be a part of it? Is it an elected or appointed body? What is the criteria to join? Who decides all this? Venita who is a recent settler? Augusto whose family are long term settlers? Leroy who is a Gaunkar? Or the original Kunbi inhabitants? Shouldn't they, the Kunbis, have a deciding say in matters of land ownership? By a quaint coincidence I have addressed the same issues in a fiction-essay style in my column for the Gomantak Times this Thursday. Please buy a copy. Lastly, if you can form such a Land Bank Committee I hope they will deem me fit to buy a small house in Moira. I will then worm my way into being on the committee and then convince them that my 'friends and relatives' will be better for Moira than anyone else's friends and relatives. Just imagine the amount of money I could make from prospective buyers. We all agree that something should be done to protect our environment from destructive builders. We should search for practical and implementable solutions. This Land Bank Committee is not one of them. Cheers! Cecil ............................................................................................................................................................... Tony D'Sa co-moderator of Moira-net wrote: "While the idea seems to be good, in theory at least, is it really feasible? And don't we already have the Comunidades which were the original Goa land banks? But whose original purposes got subverted, diluted and diverted by machinations of Man? And doesn't any neighbourhood want to protect itself from 'outsiders'? Haven't we heard how property prices in the West plummet when, for instance, a black family moves into a white neighbourhood? And nearer to home, there are housing societies in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi where you as a Christian wouldn't even be allowed to set a foot in, let alone buy a flat! I definitely will not be an account holder or shareholder or manging committee member or whatever of this land bank for the simple reason that I don't have the wherewithall to even buy a 'khomti'. At the same time, I agree with friend Cecil who says that this state of affairs must stop and our environment must be protected from money crazed builders. " ................................................................................................................................................................ VM wrote: Dear Moidekars, Interesting idea about this 'land bank' for Moira. I can understand the motivation, and the adverse reaction to it is also quite explicable. Part of the problem may be the term being used, 'land bank'. In Indian jargon, this is a term used by real estate developers, and the size and quality of a company's 'land bank' can determine a company's public valuation and profile. It is a loaded term, tarnished as it is with this connection with big real estate, and be profitably dropped from this discussion. Related to the impulses that Venita outlined, I do agree that there is now a need for people to get together to take certain key properties "off the market" rather than allow a free-for-all with all comers, along with the sure destruction of environment, essential character and cultural fabric. This is not a unique need, or phenomenon. Take the Nature Conservancy, for example, one of the greatest and most effective NGO's in the world - it specializes in doing exactly this. Here is a brief about this superb set-up, from Wikipedia: The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.[2] Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in more than 30 countries, including all 50 United States, with an increasingly global reach. The Conservancy has over one million members, has protected more than 69,000 square kilometers (17 million acres) in the United States and more than 473,000 square kilometers (117 million acres[3]) internationally. Over the past year, I have become convinced that only a Nature Conservancy-type effort is going to work in Goa in the short and medium term. If the land is acquired by the government, we've learned that we are always in trouble. In the traditional big bhatcar hands it is similarly unsafe now that the Indian real estate market is really catching up to the developed world rates - they sell and cut and run in a trice, and suddenly huge swathes of village lands are liable to be converted, The entire village ethos that has been created over centuries can be destroyed with one single loss of a strategic patch of land into the wrong hands. Like the Carmona project of the Rahejas - one complex, but potentially home to far more people than the entire existing village! Make no mistake, we are going to lose more turf to the Candolim/Calangute syndrome in Goa. There is no reason at this point for you to feel safe in Moira. The thing is that it can't be half a conservancy. No saving the land from a big builder in favour of a small builder, or our really cool bohemian friends from Alsace or Ahmedabad. Agricultural land must remain as it is, and the same with heritage structures etc, ad infinitum. Maintenance could be modelled on the work of two more excellent institutions (note: govt-funded) - 'English Heritage' and 'Natural England'- which do an outstanding job of managing heritage and nature resources in a self-supporting manner. To sum, I think conservancy on a small village-by-village or large scale can definitely work in Goa. It is not impractical, or naive to believe it, because it has worked all over the world. Unlike Cecil, I fully believe that many many sellers in Goa would readily accept less money, and clean money rather than black, to sell to a conservancy, besides others who will readily donate to such a cause. VM ................................................................................................................................................................ My response was: Dear VM These are some first reactions to your very interesting post. 1] VM: "Unlike Cecil, I fully believe that many many sellers in Goa would readily accept less money, and clean money rather than black, to sell to a conservancy, besides others who will readily donate to such a cause." AP: Lets get this out of the way quickly. Cecil knows human nature too well to be wrong on this. His instincts have been developed through practical experience. 2]VM: "only a Nature Conservancy-type effort is going to work in Goa in the short and medium term. If the land is acquired by the government, we've learned that we are always in trouble." AP: Honestly, I've not studied this Nature Conservancy concept in any way. But at first sight it seems incredible - in India at least. How is it possible to get a whole village's property owners committing to a Land Bank or whatever you would like to call it? To the best of my limited knowledge, such sorts of initiatives only come with government intervention as in Planning processes, where areas are earmarked for special purposes; or through quasi-governmental intervention, as Tony pointed out was done in the past through the Communidades. But reviving the latter, or some thing akin to that, I suspect one would have to be a mystic - an opti-mystic - one would have to have some sort of messianic presence to convince people that this is possible. And the nearest thing approaching to that - Dr. Oscar Rebello - has recently sent himself up in flames. Cheers Augusto ............................................................................................................................................................... The following is from an exchange between Leroy Veloso, a MAC member and Cecil Pinto: Leroy wrote: At the end of the day one person buys when another sells, the key question is what use the land is put to ultimately. Cecil responds: Nobody is denying that. 'What' can be done with the land can be legislated but not (as of now) 'who' buys the land. You think all our current lot of builders were always builders? Ancestrally? What stops a farmer from buying your land and putting up a mega complex? That's where Vivek's perspective makes more sense than Venita's. The village committee can maybe decide what use is to be made of land but not who can buys it. And definitely not 'friends and relatives' of Committee Members. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Cheers Augusto -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
