The existing State government policy concerning issuance of 15 years Resident Certificate to Goan citizens and their children needs to be corrected, if, interests to be safeguarded of sons and daughters of the soil.
Without 15 years of continuous stay in Goa, no Goans, their children, can be considered to be eligible for claiming 15 years Resident Certificate in order to participate in various government schemes announced by The State Government time to time. Even to become eligible for applying for Education Loan, Government Jobs, Claiming of allotment against Reservations, etc one needs 15 years resident certificate. Surely every other Goan must be facing this problem and may be fighting the war with the concerned authorities for getting issued the so called “Resident Certificate of 15 years” for self or for his/her children.
Irony starts for Goans when, for earning bread and butter, if any Goan, who is born and brought up in Goa, goes for employment in places like Mumbai, Gulf, Ship, or migrates to foreign countries and subsequently returns to Goa once again for permanent settlement with the family. Goans falling in this category, cannot prove to be residents of Goa and claim 15 years resident certificate for self or for their children due to present rigid rules being practised by concerned Authorities and therefore they are unable to participate in any of the state Schemes including education loan.
Secondly, the Authorities simply do not count those number of years of his/her stay abroad/years working on Ship, working in Gulf even if these Goans keep returning back to Goa on their vacations and stay in Goa for 30-60 days every year. As though a strong provision has been made in the “system” to debar these set of genuine Goans and against their children for not to issue 15 years resident certificate. This is ridiculous and quite damaging to the interests of genuine Goans and their children.
On one hand the State of Goa makes it difficult for their own citizens to get 15 years resident certificate while pursuing rigid policies. On the other hand, look at the policy of the Portugal Government which offers their citizenship to Goan citizens, born in Goa before 1961 and also to their children. It is a naked fact that many Goans and their children have taken advantage of this facility, offered by the Portugal Government, and after getting Portuguese Passport, these Goans and their children do migrate to the countries like the UK to find their bread and butter.
If the Govt. of Portugal can adopt such a lenient policy and grant Citizenship to Goans and their children, then why similar policy cannot be introduced by State of Goa relating to issuance of Resident Certificates to those Goans born and brought up, studied in Goa and children born out of these Goan parents, so as to ensure that the sons/daughters of soil get his/her right and children of such Goans can simply participate in schemes of State Government? After all the schemes are meant to help Goans, Goan children, Goan students to take education loan, apply for jobs, participate in reservations, etc.
It is un-just because one went abroad for earning bread & butter, stayed abroad, kept coming back to Goa on vacation every year but those number of years stayed abroad, so also number of days stayed in Goa on vacation simply do not get counted/considered while issuing 15 years Resident Certificate to these Goans. Due to this strange policy, many Goans and their children fall short to comply with the requirement of 15 years minimum stay for claiming 15 years Resident Certificate. Goans and their children if stayed outside Goa State for unavoidable reasons such as for the purpose of study, children stayed abroad with parents, Goans stayed abroad for earning livelihood, children stayed away from Goa for the purpose of higher education, why should these Goan children be debarred or deprived from State schemes for want of 15 years Resident Certificate? It is not serving the purpose of safeguarding the interests of Goans, Goans’ children, Goan students.
Check with those Goan parents who have returned for permanent settlement in Goa from the Gulf, from foreign countries. They have been severely affected due to these rigid rules. What is worse to see is that the State facilities are being claimed by children from other States whose parents not only robbed Goan jobs 30-40 years back and became residents of Goa but also now their children, the 2nd generation, are claiming State facilities and not the genuine Goan children.
To curb this mismanagement, authorities must check parents’ status, their place of birth, permanent address, before issuing 15 years resident certificate to any individual. If the parents are not born in Goa, not having permanent address in Goa, then their children cannot have the resident certificate of Goa. If the parents are born in Goa, their children should automatically assume the identity of Goa so also they will have the right to claim Resident Certificate of 15 yrs for participating in State facilities. It is going to be that simple if this simple procedure is adopted.
Portugal seems to be more liberal with Goan community than our own State. Today if one goes to claim this Resident Certificate from Gram Panchayat, District Office Administration they simply say “as per present rule” resident certificate cannot be issued. Why must the State Administration pursue these sorts of policies which minimises chances of genuine Goans and their children to claim government schemes declared by the State Government for its citizens? To whom does the State want to give these facilities? Is it for the children of citizens from other States who grabbed jobs of Goans and settled here 30-40 years back? Or for the same persons who manipulated their stay in Goa and are claiming Resident Certificates of 15 years to get all these facilities?
Now we have situation on hand where severe inflow of citizens from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, etc, easily getting settled in Goa, causing enormous pressure on transportation, health, cleanliness and causing all sorts of problems for the Goan community. These people get 15 years of resident certificate and they claim all the State facilities and NOT the real Goans.
This sort of faulty policies are hurting the interests of genuine Goans, because of which the genuine Goans do suffer and they are compelled to accept any job on ships or Gulf. What is the logic of this sort of policy.
A study will reveal that different categories of government jobs, lucrative jobs in private sector, have been captured by citizens of Karnataka and this on-going story still continues. They, it seems, make their daughters-in-law, daughters get to deliver their children in Goan territory, take a birth certificate of new born child in Goa and later on claim the Goan identity for the child only for gaining State facilities in Goa. They get the State facilities but genuine Goans not. Even they have their names on ration card in Goa and also in Karnataka. They claim voting rights in Goa and also in Karnataka.
