Comunidades is an age-old institution built by our forefathers with great foresight. They developed plains into paddy fields, built canals, mud dams, sluice gates, water drains, ponds and lakes. Thus a great system was built without any engineers but only human ingenuity and great imagination. This was a remarkable project of projects, which was built with public participation and not with government finance.
The Comunidades were the bedrock of every village which had a Comunidade. Besides providing food for all it looked after village maintenance like building village roads culverts and had a set village pathways and water ways, called panddi etc.
Even the Portuguese who colonised Goa appreciated the role of comunidades and did nothing to destroy them, on the contrary they brought in some reforms to safeguard the actual cultivators of the land.
After liberation and with the advent of MGP which lost the historic Opinion Poll to make its hold secure in Goan politics brought in the tenancy Act, whereby the tenants did not pay any fees to the Comunidades and subsequent governments transferred the right of ownership to the tenants. This was the final blow to the Comunidades. Thus the administration of Comunidades had no much role to play and the Administrators of South and North Goa were vested with full powers of administration. They being government appointed bureaucrats they had to go by the dictates of the government, wherein the politicians had greater say and that is how encroachment took place and the government turned a blind eye.
Now with the proposed amendment the fallow lying paddy fields will be taken over by the Government. This is rather irregular. Those of the cultivators who kept field fallow need to be given at least 2 Notices and if still they fail to cultivate fields, further action could be taken.
Then again the Government has no right to take over the fields as they did not belong to the Government. They should go back to the rightful original owner i.e Comunidades. I hope better sense will prevail and what is right and just for the interest of Goans for Goa.
