Our MLAs and Ministers are giving sleepless nights to the local population by passing draconian bills in a truncated assembly session by usurping ownership rights of private individuals and comunidades lands in favour of the migrant by terming them as ‘bhumiputra’ which translates to son of the soil and discriminates against the real Niz Goenkar.
Interestingly, the erstwhile Goa Mundkar Act was promulgated in 1975 giving protection to the mundkars against eviction by the landlords and they were basically natives doing menial service to their masters known as bhatkars. This Act was enforced by the first Chief Minister of Goa Dayanand Bandodkar after protecting his landed properties and leaving the other bhatkars in the lurch and to fend for themselves resulting in the mundkar acquiring the requisite parcel of land by paying a measly compensation to the bhatkar which was popularly known then as land to the tiller. This was followed by the Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction Act 2016 granting ownership rights, with over five thousand applications filed staking a claim for ownership of land. Now if and when the Bhumiputra Adhikarni Bill comes into force, the courts will be having a harrowing time in attending to the pile up of cases.
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The bulldozing of the controversial Bhumiputra Adhikari Bill 2021 stinks of vote bank politics depriving the opportunity for a healthy debate as is wont in a democratic set up. The suspicious Bhumiputra Adhikarni Bill introduced by Mauvin Godinho portrays the ulterior motives of the government to favour the encroachers in regularising their illegal houses occupied by the slum dwellers on communidade and private citizen’s land. Most of the illegal migrants occupying comunidade lands fall under his constituency of Zuari Nagar and New Vaddem.
This bill is akin to the in(famous) farmers bill brought through the ordinance route where the farmers are deprived of their rights of approaching the courts for redressal of their grievance for repeal of the three contentious agri bills. The state government is following in the footsteps of the central government without paying heed to the voices of opposition of the people whom the politico class represent.
Now the moot question arises whether the Bhumiputra Adhikarni Bill 2021 passed post-haste by the state government stands scrutiny of the law as the SC judge Justice A R Dave compares illegal constructions to rape and murder .
Goa is a unique state unmatched with the rest of the country and should be preserved for posterity for the benefit of the future generations where our ancestors have preserved this pristine beauty.
If the rape and plunder of the small state with limited land mass goes on unabated and handed over to the slum dwellers then Goem, Goemkar and Goemkarponn will soon be replaced by Goem, Bhumiputra and Bhumiputraponn. The only way forward for this not to happen is a second revolution where all like minded secular political outfits take center stage and oust the saffron party which is pursuing an agenda which is detrimental to the interest of the locals.
