--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Political interference affecting comunidades ----------------------------------------------------------- by Joaquim Fernandes
An unholy nexus between the troika comprising the state government, the administrator of comunidades and the managing committees of the individual comunidade bodies has led to the downfall of the institution of the comunidade in Goa, according to the Association of Components of Comunidades (ACC).
According to the ACC secretary, Mr Andre Pereira, the problem starts with the very appointment of the employees of the comunidade by the government. "The management of comunidades has fallen into the hands of politicians. According to the Code of Comunidade, the government is supposed to conduct examinations to appoint these comunidade personnel. But politicians dump the people of their choice on us; people who know nothing about the functioning of the comunidades. These appointments should be given not on influence but on merit after passing the examinations," said Mr Pereira.
"Likewise the promotions are also given without examinations. While the employment is done by the politicians, the salaries are paid from the contribution of members of comunidades. So these employees listen to the telephonic dictates of the politicians and do not listen to us," Mr Pereira added.
Another problem afflicting comunidades is that much of the comunidade land has fallen in the hands of criminal trespassers. But the powers to remove them is not in the hands of the managing committees or the components.Mr Pereira said that earlier suits were required to be filed by taking the permission of the administrative tribunal. But in 1986, the government amended the rules which gave powers to the administrator of comunidades to remove the encroachments under Article 371 of the Code of Comunidades.
"Now we are at the mercy of the administrator of comunidades. There are thousands of complaints from the managing committees of the comunidades of Mormugao, Vaddem, Chicalim, Sancoale and others. Nothing is being done by the administrator of comunidades. Sometimes the managing committees also collude with the encroachers," Mr Pereira remarked. He said the government's recent move to regularise these illegal encroachments amounts to giving the offenders proprietorship over the land.
The entire New Vaddem hill in Vasco is full of encroachments with about 4,000 houses. The Colvale comunidade land is full of scrapyards for last many years. While the ACC also blames the managing committees of some of the comunidade's problems, it holds the government primarily responsible. This may be seen from a recent "appeal" it made to the public regarding its sorry state of affairs.
The appeal states that after liberating Goa on December 19, 1961, the central government did not enact any law to confer upon any local government the status of a landlord over the proprietors and non-state private landowners as expressed in terms of the Constitution of India.
"We state that by the Charter of Foral of Afonso de Mexia dated September 16, 1526, the local usages and customs which existed prior to the Portuguese rule in Goa stood recognised as the existing law of the natives. The native laws were subsequently properly compiled, codified and enforced vis-a-vis the general public civil and criminal laws that were later introduced by the Portuguese."
The appeal states that after liberation, the past and present governments of Goa are conducting illegal business, in terms of various public laws, introduced in Goa by nursing false concept of state "landlordism" over non-state lands and that the Goa Land Revenue Code, 1968, is one such kind.
It goes on to add: "We state that the state government of Goa have caused suo moto so-called Revenue Survey of all the land in the state and fraudulently framed so-called Record of Rights in the localities without jurisdiction; that gross misuse is made of these fraudulently framed and maintained records to settle false claims of persons claiming as owners, tenants or mundkars; that absolute fraud is played by the revenue authorities on innocent citizens by forcibly thrusting these fake records in the absence of state land tenure relationships with them." The appeal urges the public to act and eliminate this continuing fraud in Goa which is promoting all sorts of corrupt practices. --------------------------------------------- The Navhind Times 6/9/04 page 1 ---------------------------------------------
======================================= GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE Documentation + Education + Solidarity 11 Liberty Apts., Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goadesc.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Working On Issues Of Development & Democracy =======================================
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