MARGAO: Leader of the Muslim community and General Secretary of Madrasa Raz-A-Mustafa Karol Matin who had made various suggestions to the government in the past over the kabrastan issues now suggests that having the kabrastan on the 30,000 sq mts of land belonging to Margao Municipal Council would solve the problem once and for all.
The Muslim community, facing hardships with the burial ground used by them at Pajifond, had approached the government way back in 1980 to allot land for a kabrastan. Digambar Kamat on July 16, 1999 moved a resolution in the Goa Legislative Assembly to provide land in and around Margao for a burial ground to the Muslim community.
In fact around 10,000 sq mts of land was identified at Aquem for the kabrastan but then Luizinho Faleiro suggested that land be allotted to three communities to have their burial grounds and the matter languished.
However, as there was no progress made, Karol Matin filed a petition before the National Commission for Minorities which was heard for the first time on May 10, 2010 and subsequently at the hearing on July 4, 2011 it was decided to send a team to Goa.
Interestingly, the government initiated the land acquisition process when the petition was filed and the land admeasuring 30,191 sq mts was handed over to the Margao Municipal Council. The MMC initially gave the land to the PWD to develop as a burial ground and on December 9, 2011 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jamaat Masjid.
Surprisingly, when the National Commission for Minorities team came to Goa they were shown different land and not the land acquired according to Karol who accompanied the team to inspect the land.
“The team was first shown land at Aquem then at Chandrawado in Fatorda and then at Verna by the government officials while I showed them the land at Davorlim close to Rumdamoll which has a lot of Muslims living nearby,” said Karol.
He accused Digambar Kamat of playing games with the community and held him responsible for showing different lands to the team from Delhi.
