It may be recalled that some farmers/tenants of agricultural land in Borda had complained to SGPDA, police and other authorities, against the Margao Comunidade Attorney for fraud and forgery. The tenants had alleged that it was an attempt to displace them.
Refuting their allegations, Celestino in his statement said that the Comunidade of Margão was approached by Celestino said, “Cofre de São Joaquim de Capela de Borda” on June 19, 2015 requesting for a specific parcel of land at Borda for construction of a new church and related activities. The proposal, inter-alia, was accompanied by declarations on affidavit by so-called cultivators indicating their willingness to voluntarily surrender the land for construction of a new church etc.”
The attorney further revealed that the general body of the Comunidade, convened on April 10, 2016, unanimously resolved to approve grant of the land on aframento basis for construction of a church as the cultivators had given their consent, provided the Cofre complies with all formalities with no burden on the Comunidade whatsoever and the Comunidade to give all support in this regard.
“The Comunidade being the landlord of the said land, I was approached by the Cofre to request South Goa PDA for change of zone of the land in question to ‘Institutional’ in the Margao ODP to facilitate the project. Accordingly, a communication to that effect was issued on behalf of the Comunidade on September 22, 2016,” Celestino added.
“No other papers were appended to the said communication to South Goa PDA. I have no knowledge and hence have nothing to do with any purported NOCs etc. claimed to have been submitted by so-called farmers to the South Goa PDA”, the attorney added.
Meanwhile, one of the complainants has said that the Attorney was expected to verify the application he received and moved ahead with the procedure.
Earlier, in their letter to the SGPDA, police and other authorities, the farmers/tenants of agricultural land in Borda had alleged fraud and forgery by Noronha.
A farmer/tenant said, “On September 22, Celestino Noronha wrote a letter to the SGPDA member secretary on behalf of Comunidade of Margao falsely claiming that. the cultivators bearing certain PT Sheet No/Chalta No/Sub-div had willingly agreed to surrender the paddy fields for construction of church and allied activities.”
“Conciecao Andrade, Francisca Mathew Soares, Conciecao Noronha and others who were mentioned as tenants and farmers handing over their land had never made any such commitment and in fact objected to converting the zone of the paddy fields which they had been cultivating for generations. They had also written a letter of objection to the member secretary of SGPDA,” Conciecao Noronha, a farmer had said.
The farmers had claimed that the NOCs in their name were false and forged by the Attorney and said that it is quite evident that all the NOCs given by other farmers have been drafted by the same person(s) who cheated these tenants into giving up their land since they are not aware of their rights and some cannot even read or write.
The farmers had demanded that a case be registered with the police for committing fraud and forgery against the Attorney of Margao and that he be suspended as the Attorney.
