The former Governor of Goa, Satya Pal Malik, in October 2021, in an interview had exposed and alleged that the Goa Government was drenched in corruption. He had claimed that his ouster from Goa’s Raj Bhavan to Meghalaya was a result of his stand against corruption by the Pramod Sawant-led State government.
A year earlier, in August 2020, the Goa Lokayukta PK Mishra in a letter to Governor Satya Pal Malik had questioned the very need for the existence of the Lokayukta as its recommendations are regularly rejected by the government “given the usual attitude of protecting the privileged and the powerful”.
Last year, in November, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)-Goa’s then SP Ashesh Kumar in an explosive observation about Goa and Goans lamented, “We received a complaint last in 2018. We are sitting idle in Goa because there is no participation on the part of people and media in Goa. That means there is no corruption in Goa.” A week later the officer was transferred out of Goa.
Now the investigation into the massive land grab scams by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has revealed that land grabbing was impossible without the help of corrupt government officials. The SIT has revealed a chain of corruption that began from the driver to the top official of the Revenue Department, alongwith the Archives Department staff, by inserting forged sale deeds in their records and making the land grab legal.
The SIT was formed in August 2022 and the team has received more than 450 complaints involving land grabbing of over 700 properties, including grabbing of government land. However, of the 450, presently only 44 complaints are being heard by the Commission of Inquiry headed by Retd Justice V K Jadhav. The Designated Police Officer of SIT in his affidavit to the Commission has revealed the modus operandi of how land grabbing was executed.
For long, Goans have put the issue of corruption under the carpet as bribing an individual to get work done has become a norm in Goa’s governance and an accepted reality. From sliding a Rs 100 note to receive a Birth/Death Certificate immediately, to paying huge sums of money to secure a government job, Goans have been paying the price as per their capacity as and when required, and the vicious cycle continues.
The SIT’s revelations point out that corruption is at the core of the land grab scam. Being a participant as well as a victim of the vicious cycle, from the driver, to the top official who turned a blind eye in connivance, everyone was out to make hay while the sun was shining. The land grab scam is a larger-than-life dark shadow of every Goan who has participated actively or remained silent at every step of corruption that unfolds in government offices and during elections.
The Justice Jhadhav Commission has an uphill task as it has to complete the probe into the 750 complaints in a time-bound manner. With the limited human resources, specially trained and upright officers, will the Commission of Inquiry be successful? Secondly, will the SIT be able to lay its hands on the senior officials and politicians involved in the land grab? A sitting MLA is already under investigation in a related case. Such a large-scale scam cannot be executed without the involvement of those in signatory positions.
The scam involves thousands of square meters of land worth hundreds of crores of rupees. If the pockets are deep then the connections and links run deeper or, should one say, higher in rank in governance. A glance at the last decade will expose that Goa’s reputation for punishing corrupt officials and politicians is very poor. Therefore, will the Justice Jadhav Commission be able to indict all involved in the corruption and will the victims see justice?
