03 Jul 2022  |   08:06am IST

Has the government machinery gone blind to the need for justice for land-losing Goans?

Hapless Goans bereft of justice from the system are coming to Herald with their stories, many of them senior citizens with restricted movements but with newfound courage to fight

Does it matter what the SIT (Special Investigating Team to probe land grabbing cases) does now? For far too long the government has not stood up to protect hundreds and hundreds of Goan sons and daughters, whose lands have been grabbed, more often than not,  by fellow Goans with not a  care in the world

Is the govt there? Is ‘might is right’  the way it goes now?

Is there no sense of justice, and is the government blind? Has the system been blindfolded not to look at land-grabbing goons and look the other way when elderly, weak and even blind Goans are literally on the streets because “cunning land-grabbers helped by the system and its institutions have managed to manufacture papers with forged signatures establishing” ownership fraudulently?

Original and genuine holders of the land face bulldozers, eviction notices, and as we have reported in this edition (accompanying story); even the physical demolition of their homes right in front of them. Complaints have piled up in police stations for years and years without being touched.  And when FIRs have been lodged, nothing much has happened after that.

This is why after the SIT was constructed, police stations are in a mad rush to send all cases to it, happy to wash their hands off the investigation. This pretty much gives an idea of which side the “system” is on. Not on the side of the blind man from Velim who was dragged out, and shoved while his home was demolished. Not on the side of the bedridden Goan in Mumbai who cannot walk and therefore cannot come to Goa to fight against those who have “bought and sold” his ancestors’ land and to drive him out; the system is surely not on the side of the Fatorda family whose ancestors are dead but the property was “sold”after the death of one of them, with his (dead person’s) signature.

So which side is the system on? Again not on the side of the blind, the ones with disability, the old and the frail, not on the side of honest Goans who have inherited their ancestral land and maintain these homes.

So, whose side are they on? They seem to be on the side of a very wide network of fraudsters painfully most of them Goan, some acting as fronts of others.  In all these years and not just when Herald started to deep dive and unearth these cases, a very well-developed network of people emerged whose names are found across a cluster of land transfers. Many of them have addresses that are not genuine. Those whose families, for example, are not from Cuncolim, have declared themselves as Cuncolim residents in land deeds. 

This bunch gets properties in their name through forgery, impersonation, and misrepresentation and they flex muscles to evict people from their own properties, many of whom didn’t even know that their land has been “sold” or transferred or gifted.

But then should the blame just lie on the doors of the crooks or on the system which makes them thrive? The revenue dept says they don’t check title deeds, the TCP minister is now asking people to send complaints on his personal ID, though he has been in power for close to ten years and counting. The blame of course lies with the police because these acts of land grab are criminal cases. But can the others really wash their hands off knowing fully well what is happening?

MLAs and Ministers are there to serve people. How can elected representatives be so naïve as not to know the pattern of this great property loot?

One of the reasons why there is such a buzz in wanting to course correct and clean up the system is because  the government has understood that this is not just a storm in a teacup. Land loss is a serious secular problem. It is not linked to any religion, caste, or even social strata. And when someone sees a bulldozer or a JCB in his house or gets threatened to leave his own property, hurt and shock turn to anger when you see the system is not on your side. Perhaps the government will realise this and actually does so.

If people do not get a sense of justice, then the walls of resilience and patience will break down. If Goans feel that dacoits’ are at the door and the police station becomes their refuge, while ordinary Goan folks can’t get in there to even complain, then you will be dealing with a sea of Gian families who feel betrayed and will want to settle scores of injustice,

Therefore, the government should be seen to be serious about this and actually be so. There is no scope for half-truths and half-measures.