-- Samir Umarye Mayem Evacuee Properties Villagers Action Committee will be holding a dharna at Bicholim on August 14, to demand reversion of various properties situated at Mayem, which are in the custody of the Custodian of Evacuee Properties, to be given back to the Mayem Gram Saunstha (Comunidade of Mayem) as it originally existed.
The people of Mayem of north coastal Goa, backed by freedom fighters and other organisations, on Friday declared their resolve to boycott the upcoming State Assembly elections if their long-simmering problems over evacuee property status of the properties in the village were not resolved once for all. Almost the whole village, around 20 km from here, with a population of over 30,000, had been declared as evacuee property, which meant that it was owned by a Portuguese who fled the country and settled in Portugal after liberation. The people of the village were agitated that the elected governments in the last 50 years had promised to resolve the issue but failed to do so. Mr. Kashinath Mayekar of Mayem Nagarik Samiti on Friday told presspersons that they had formed the association with the objective of securing reversion of various properties situated in the village of Mayem, which were in the custody of the Custodians of Evacuee Properties, back to Mayem Gram Sausntha( Communidade of Mayem, a village commune) as it originally existed. As the situation prevailed, the village of Mayem comprises various properties, including 1,500 houses. That these properties originally belonged to the Communidade of Mayem and in or around the year 1816, the said properties were given under a grant to one Diogo Da Costa De Athaide Taiva. The said grant was valid for three generations. That accordingly, at the end of the third generation, the said properties ought to have been reverted back to the Communidade of Mayem. When Goa was liberated from the Portuguese rule and the said D'silva along with his heirs left Goa for Portugal. The Nagrik Samittee members said on Friday that around 1,500 families residing in these properties had been constantly facing problems from Antonio S. C. Pereira who claims to be the legal heir of the D'silva and blamed Goa politicians for not doing enough to resolve their plight. (The Hindu) http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2352781.ece
