According to highly placed sources the Government Bill viz the Land Acquisition (Goa Amendment) Bill, 2009 which was moved by the Hon'ble Minister for Revenue Mr Jose Philip D' Souza on 24th March, 2009 for consideration and passed by the august Goa Legislative Assembly has finally received the assent of the Governor of Goa on 16th April, 2009.
It may be recalled that following a judgement of the Supreme Court of India ordering demolition of a major portion of the Cidade de Goa resort delivered on 20th January, 2009 the Government of Goa went all out of the way to avert the compliance of the judgement before dooms day 19th April, 2009, by promulgating an ordinance Land Acquisition (Goa Amendment) Ordinance 2009 under art 213 of the Constitution of India, on 28.02.2009 amending section 41 of the Land Acquisition Act 1984 to insert sec 6 7 8 & 9 retrospectively from 15-10-1964 and thereafter introducing the Land Acquisition (Goa Amendment) Bill 2009 on 24th March,2009. The ploy obviously "stage-managed" was to get the employees to plead with the Government to save them from the dilema of losing their employment and the Government shed a tear almost overenthusiatically bending backwards to avert the demolition by the promulgation of the ordinance. Ordinarily the Government ought to have allowed the demolition and placed the onus on the employers to re-employ the staff gainfully or offer them a Voluntary Retirement Scheme of a 90 day compensation or any other alternative the employees would desire. This immediately brought protests from conscientious citizens in the State in March 2009. Even a section of the politicos alleged it was the "Saraswat Brahmin politicos" viz the CM Mr Digamber Kamat the Leader of Opposition Mr Manohar Parrikar the ex-Minister Mr Somnath Zuarkar ( who was incidentally the then Sarpanch of Taleigao who did not refer the file to the Chief Town Planner that resulted in the "deemed" permission for illegal extension by the Timblos who own the Cidade also Saraswat Brahmins and well connected to legal luminaries. No doubt it was only the Prudent Media often described as the "posorkars (read Saraswat Brahmin) media and its honcho the ex MPT Chairman Mr Arvind Bhatikar IAS who went all out of the way to "convincingly" explain the "letter and spirit" of the SC judgement delivered on 20th January, 2009 both in their audio visual and other print media. After all is it not a "fact" that Saraswat Brahmins consider themselves incarnates of God on earth - and are infallible obviously then how can they be faulted by lesser human beings even a SC judgement is meant for lesser mortals not them - Some argue that now that the Government have saved the Timblos is it not right to save the lesser mortals who are likely to face demolition on the structures within the CRZ? Obviously there cannot be two yardsticks -- the SC law should prevail if the sanctity of the highest Court of the land is to be preserved. GODFREY J. I. GONSALVES, BORDA, MARGAO, 403 602, GOA. (INDIA) +91 98221 58584 (24 HRS) [email protected] Own a website.Get an unlimited package.Pay next to nothing.*Go to http://in.business.yahoo.com/
