Folks
GGRM requires all your support (in every form) over the next few months...
J
*PRESS NOTE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
*All Media*
*Date: *3 March 2009
*Contact: *Geraldine Fernandes 9822146420
Kim Miranda 9422443855
*GGRM condemns Ordinance amending Land Acquisition Act*
The Ganv Ghor Rakhon Manch expresses is shock and outrage at the
Government’s promulgation of the Land Acquisition (Goa Amendment) Ordinance
2009. GGRM opines that the promulgation of the Ordinance is yet another
example of the Government’s absolute disregard for processes of law and
exposes its double speak on its concern for the common person.
GGRM points out that as per the norms of Parliamentary democracy, Ordinances
are reserved for emergencies, cases that cannot wait until the Legislature
is in session. Given that there exists no pressing urgency to amend the Act,
the Government of Goa in promulgating the Ordinance has indicated its
illegitimate bias towards the private interests of the owners of the Cidade
de Goa hotel.
For a government that makes much of its commitment to the common person, the
GGRM is shocked to note how the Government has hijacked the cause of
livelihoods to support the profiteering by private parties that have clearly
trespassed into public property. It is noteworthy that the Government has
not displayed any such sympathy for residents in coastal villages whose
traditional homesteads are being destroyed, nor the gadda owners who have
been displaced. Having said this however, GGRM asserts that livelihoods of
the common man and profits of corporations cannot be equated and demands
that the Government heed the directions of the Supreme Court of India
regarding Cidade de Goa’s trespass.
GGRM while condemning this action, points out that this is not the first of
this Government’s attempts to systematically undo the rule of law in the
State of Goa. While committing the people of Goa to the Regional Plan
process, it has displayed willful neglect towards its primary duty to carry
out legislative changes in order to legitimize the people’s participatory
processes and has instead hurriedly amended laws, rules and regulations,
initiated fresh policies and created legal loopholes to legitimize its
anti-people and arbitrary actions. GGRM reminds the Government that it has
submitted numerous memoranda to the Government on a number of urgent issues
of public interest but is yet to receive any response on the same. Having
pursued a reconciliatory and legal route this far, GGRM now expresses its
helplessness before growing Government apathy, even as it is being forced by
its constituents toward more adversarial and radical action.
GGRM demands the revocation of the Ordinance and action against the illegal
constructions carried out by Cidade de Goa, and adds further that premium
commercial rents and fines be collected from Cidade de Goa for the illegal
use of the land and this amount be handed over to the Village Panchayat of
Taleigao, within whose jurisdiction the hotel falls.
s/d
Geraldine Fernandes
(Convenor)
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Read my thoughts at www.dervishnotes.blogspot.com
