Having 4,000 odd illegal structures constructed on Comunidade as well as on the land owned by Zuari Agro Chemicals limited(ZACL), Zuarinagar slums is today Goa’s biggest and heavily populated slum.
Ever since the state government had announced to regularise illegal structures in state, the residents have started preparing themselves financially to become the legal owners of the land occupied by them, though most of them are still confused as to whether their dream would actually become a reality or not. Though these slums dwellers have always remained the favourite vote bank with a total vote strength of over 12K in Cortalim constituency and even after getting their leader elected, no one it seems, has taken their problems seriously to fulfill their promises and provide better facilities.
Herald in its ground report revisited the area and it was surprising to note that most residents had a rough idea that they would be paying more or less Rs 1 lakh for an area of 100 square metres and their structures would be then regularised by the state government through the illegal structure bill which is yet to be passed by the state legislative assembly.
“This slum is home to most of the migrant population and thus having a legal house in Goa would be huge bonus and a dream come true. Though we don’t have exact figure as to how much we have to shell out for getting our structures regularised, however, political leaders claim that the amount would be less than the market price and that’s acceptable to most of the residents,” said Shivananad Bingi, a Panch member representing Zuarinagar slum area in Sancoale Village Panchayat.
The excitement of becoming legal owner of encroached property was clearly visible on face of these slum dwellers. Though these residents have been living without any civic facilities, still they feel that their biggest strength is their ballot power. “We have vote power and we are sure that a day will surely come when our area would have all required facilities and amenities which would improve the standard of living,” said Sidddappa Harijan, a Zuarinagar slum resident.
Another major issue that came to the fore during Herald’s visit was the fact that, though the total number of illegal structures are over 4,000 but less than 70 per cent of residents are not the actual owners and rest have been occupying these structures on rent. This means that out of 4,000 odd illegal houses, merely 2,800 odd houses at Zuarinagar may come in the purview of government’s bill on illegal structures, while the fate of the other 1,200 is still unknown.
“There are hundreds of people occupying structures on rent. Since the time people have heard the news of illegal structures bill, the owners and especially some 15 odd people who have more than 20 houses which are given out on rent have no clue about the fate of their premises given on rent.
At the same time, the tenant too feels that as they have occupied structures on rent since last so many years, they would get benefit of government bill, but everything is still a mystery,” said another Zuarinagar resident.
While the mystery on various issues continues, it is a fact that the residents of Zuarinagar slums who are trying to become legal are excited and are demanding that the state government should pass the bill and complete the process before forthcoming assembly elections.
