MPT isn’t the master of all it surveys, especially the land of Goa and Goans

People of Goa are telling their Govt not to fail them once again and protect its land below its rivers from being taken over

Sujay Gupta

There are times when kings get an illusion of might from the size of their kingdoms. This malaise also inflicts lesser mortals, institutions and people. The same malady seems to have unfortunately struck one of the grandest institutions, under the Centre’s tutelage that is ensconced on the land of Goa, the Mormugao Port trust.

This port has launched and received thousands of ships and vessels for trade and tourism, an important cog in Goa’s and India’s wheel of commerce. So it perhaps can be excused if some misplaced hubris has made an intrusion along with the seawater into the organization.

This normally wouldn’t have been so apparent. But the manner in which the MPT is almost muscle-flexing over its way off the mark claim, that the close to 6 lakh square meters of land it has reclaimed from the Zuari river belongs to them and not the Government of Goa, smacks of hubris and arrogance or both. Unless of course, we take the charitable view that this august institution has genuinely erred in comprehending that there is a simple difference between jurisdiction over and ownership of land.

It has jurisdiction over the waters of the Goa’s coast upto specified limits. But it cannot claim ownership of that very land. There is an obvious legal as well as a common-sense explanation that you cannot own what you do not have unless ownership has been expressly conferred to you. Of course, you can conquer or usurp land but that, to the best of one’s knowledge is not supposed to be MPT’s core competency or intention. Nor are we alluding, that it is the case.

In the light of the above therefore, the statements of the Deputy Chairman of the MPT, G P Rai, reacting to a series of in-depth stories by Herald to re-open an issue concerning Goa’s sovereignty, prestige, its land and above all, it’s clear title and rights, are surprising, to put it in the mildest manner we can. The Dy Chairman told Herald, when contacted for MPTs version last week  “The Goa government only has to give the survey numbers, the land belongs to MPT”. There is a fundamental contradiction in this statemen, even if it is, in the unlikeliest of circumstances, backed by official or legal documentation.

And the fundamental flaw can be fathomed by looking at these two simple questions. A police station has jurisdiction over a particular area and is responsible for law and order in its jurisdiction. Does it mean it owns all the land under its jurisdiction? Or for that matter does the South Goa Planning and Development Authority, which has jurisdiction over large parts of South Goa, own all the land, over which it adjudicates?

The problem here is that MPT is assuming its ownership based on a Central Government circular which gives it territorial rights over the areas under its control. Now the grey area is whether that central gazette notification explicitly gives them ownership rights or not. for argument's sake, if it at all does, which is almost impossible, then it is fundamentally bad in law as it contravenes Section 14 of the Goa Land Revenue Code which states that property to which there is no title vests in the state government.

In case MPT needs further understanding, we shall humbly attempt it one more time. Your port limits only indicate the regulatory jurisdiction of your port for its administration, control and management, and do not, ipso facto, confer ownership rights to you over the area within your limits, except in cases where the property is specifically owned by the port.  And these close to 6 lakh square meters, about half of it now under the South West Port and is occupied and leased by the MPT to Coal handling operations, do not come under your ownership.

And neither Herald nor this columnist, though both understand the situation legally, ethically and morally, have arrived at or jumped to conclusions. This is the position of the Captain of Ports and the Goa government as outlined on the floor of the Goa Assembly by the Revenue Minister of the state, which the Deputy Chairman of the MPT has rejected, stating her remarks have “no merit”.  

The least that this government and its Revenue Minister can do is not to take this almost casual ridiculing of the Goa government lying down and respond fittingly to the MPT and more importantly, expedite the case which is with the Sub Divisional Magistrate Mormugao for over a year now. By their inactions, neither the Goa government nor the SDM Mormugao, seem to have made protecting Goa’s land, their priority, in this case.

This has led to the MPT expecting survey numbers for this land from the Goa government and assuming that it’s a mere formality. To top it all, it has leased out a portion this land to private players like the developers of the Nauxim Marina. Above all, the MPT, without survey numbers, truly believes that its position is completely legit. The state government by not showing alacrity in its response is allowing MPT to gain ground and legitimise this belief.

And this will not be accepted by the people of Goa, because every inch of the land of Goa is held in custody by the Government of Goa, for the ultimate well being of the people of the state.   

It is absolutely appalling that there has been no proactive stand of the Goa government not to repeal the misnomer, bordering on the myth, that the MPT is the owner these six lakh square meters. It cannot allow this issue to linger in the realm of purported uncertainty, a minute longer. All that the Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate needs to do is to take her stated and absolutely correct position in the state Assembly to the MPT and the adjudicating authority, the SDM Mormugao and settle the issue.

If Goa fails to do this, it will only add to the growing sense of dejection and disgust that the Centre directly, or though its organisations and institutions are taking decisions that are belittling our land and the rights of our people, with our state, either being complicit in the act (as in the case of allowing the National Highway Expansion, power transmission line and the railway double tracking) or being simply unresponsive, as in the case of allowing MPT to claim ownership of reclaimed land from the sea.

In both cases, it is alienating its own people as well as surrendering its rights under the law, like its ownership of land under the Goa Land Revenue Code.

And by doing this, it is also doing the unthinkable. Surrendering its constitutionally enshrined sovereignty under the spirit of federalism.