Dear Tony, Thank you for enlightening us on the technicalities of the Zono. No doubt I owe my aunt one. She is now long dead so the only way I can possibly repay her is to make a beeline to my parish church and offer up a mass for her. Mind you I personally don’t believe that will help or harm her but she would have been pleased with it. There were several other things she must have done without taking credit for them. One was ensuring that our house and property was properly recorded in the Survey that followed India’s occupation of Goa. Things were so informal then and based on the honor system which was prevalent during Portuguese rule and carried on for some years until Indian bureaucratic systems solidified . What you said was what they believed and nobody said the wrong thing. A similar honor system prevailed some years ago in all aspects of government and corporation procedure in Canada. Until some immigrants took undue advantage of it and they had to reluctantly decrease dependence on honor and start requesting proof of bonafides. In a few areas it still prevails though. On another note, it is very sad indeed to see the level to which India has descended. The British and the Portuguese left us with sound governance and high public morals. Never mind what happened after that to the body politic and the body public, the Indian Armed forces remained the bastion of these values until recently when they too succumbed. To determine to what level, you can read about the Adarsh Building scandal in Bombay where a couple of chiefs of the services are under CBI investigation and imminent arrest. Chiefs, Tony, Chiefs. Lt Generals and Admirals. Regards, Roland. From: Tony de Sa [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 12:44 PM To: Goa's Premiere Mailing List, Estd 1994; Roland Francis Subject: Re: [Goanet] Mezaak Murre !! Dear Roland,
You cannot collect your zono if you are not 'inscribed' in the roll of members of the Comunidade of that particular village of which you are a gaunkar. More over the initial inscription is only done in the month of May a year in advance of you attaining the age at which you are entitled to receive zono in your Comunidade. Also you have to register every year else you are not entitled to the zono for the next year. The list of eligible members is termed the 'Matricula das zoneiros' and helps to keep check on the number of zoneiros who are alive (and kicking) and to decide upon the amount of zono for that particular year. The zono is calculated in the following manner. The income of the comunidade from all sources is computed first for the financial year beginning March and ending in February. This is different from most financial years that begin in April and end in March as in current use in the financial world today. Then the expenses are computed. The difference minus 10 percent 'derama' represents the amount to be distributed to the zoneiros for that year. Derama is the fee paid by the comunidade to the Administracao das Comunidades for the services rendered by the Administrator and the registrar. Please note that money accrued from the sale of land cannot be used to pay zono - the only source of income is therefore reduced to interest on deposits, leases and such other income other than that from capital gains. In the past there was a stipulated fee deduction at source as you like to call it if you 'wrote' your zono for a given year. This was supposedly a fee for the escrivao (now termed 'registrar' as per the official English translation of the Codigo das Comunidades). The system of fees to the escrivao has been dispensed with since long. Another thing is that if your name was not inscribed for five years, the bye laws of your comunidade permitting, you would have to be re-registered for that period and you would be paid arrears for that period in the month of may next. If your name was registered in the matricula for five years in your absence you would have to thank your aunt or someone else who registered you for all those years. Also rules for payment of arrears of zono vary from comunidade to comunidade. -- Tony de Sa. tonydesa at gmail dot com ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
