AAP slams govt over alleged Dona Paula land scam

Team Herald

PANJIM: Aam Aadmi Party has levelled serious accusations against the Pramod Sawant-led government over an alleged land scam at Dona Paula. 

The party has alleged that the government has failed to protect public land and not acted in good faith to punish all those involved in what appears to be a massive land scam. 

Explaining the chronology of the past 13 years, spokesperson Valmiki Naik provided details of how a parcel of prime land in Dona Paula, originally acquired by the government for public purpose, had found its way into hands of private parties. The plot was reportedly for building police quarters. 

Naik alleged that a private citizen had to approach the High Court of Bombay at Goa to prevent encroachments in the government land, and it was only after the High Court ordered the Deputy Collector to demarcate the land that the process was initiated. 

The party spokesperson added that after years of dragging the matter, the Deputy Collector had, by an order passed in July 2018, found that an area as large as 1,30,413 square metres of acquired land was ‘found missing’ and allowed the application moved by the PWD to get the land demarcated through the Director of Land Survey and Settlement.

AAP Convener Elvis Gomes said that at this juncture, the party was keen to know at whose instance government authorities were disobeying the judicial orders which bind them to act. “We are not on the rights of anyone. It is of interest to note that the Deputy Collector has found that the land in question was ‘surreptitiously’ subdivided into different holdings. The deputy collector’s order is upheld by the Administrative Tribunal. If that is so, why is the BJP government perpetuating a wrong committed by their Congress predecessors? It gives more credence to our charge that this is a Congress Janata Party Government. It is time an investigation is launched to find out the motives of the government authorities in not setting the record straight,” he said.

He further added that if the government fails to come out clear on the issue, AAP would file appropriate proceedings in public interest.

AAP leader Mario Cordeiro that this is just one case that came to light due to alert citizens and demanded proper investigation to ascertain how many more such parcels of land had “gone missing” from the government inventory. He added that it was time to punish all those responsible for such acts of fraudulent nature. 

While replying to a media question, Gomes said that magnitude of alleged scam may have to be ascertained but that it could be over Rs 450 crores.