ALFRED FERNANDES
SANGUEM: In 1971, then Chief Minister Pratap Singh Rane at a meeting of Selaulim evacuees promised them the Class 1 status of the new lands given to them “in no time”.
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Fifty-one years later, the time for the allotment “in no time”, has still not come.
And now the Water Resources Minister has asked the evacuees to cultivate their land for the government to give them Class 1 status of land allotted to them as compensation for their traditional fertile land for the Selaulim dam project.
At an event in Sanguem earlier this week, Water Resources Minister Subhash Shirodkar asked the Selaulim evacuees to use the lands allotted to them for farming, before demanding Class I status for the plots. This effectively means giving them land titles and formal ownership.
With Class I status, the owner of the land has the freedom to utilise or dispose of his land as he wishes, while the Selaulim evacuees are presently only allowed to practice agriculture on the lands allotted to them during their rehabilitation.
“Anyone found keeping the agricultural plots that were given to them during the rehabilitation exercise fallow will be taken to task, and the government may then have to decide to go a different way when considering their claims for Class 1 status,” warned the Minister, whose remarks elicited an angry response from the people of Selaulim and Kurdi, who have been waiting for their compensatory lands to be declared freehold properties for over 51 years now.
The Minister, who is also the local MLA said that the notification of Class I status for the lands of the evacuees would be considered shortly and blamed the delay on some technicalities in some paperwork.
A panchayat member from Curdi-Wadem and a beneficiary of a piece of agricultural land from the government, Chandan Unandkar pointed out that the land was allotted to the evacuees, not as a gift or a free handout; it was their right.
The people originally hailing from Selaulim and Curdi villages in Sanguem had given up vast swathes of agricultural lands to construct Selaulim Dam, which supplies water to most of South Goa. In lieu of their lost farms and settlement lands, the government gave the evacuees housing and agricultural plots at Wadem, Valkini, and Nagvem villages. “The government is bound to notify Class I status of these lands allotted to the evacuees,” asserted Unandkar.
“Despite multiple assurances over the past 51 years, the government has been playing with the sentiments of the evacuees by not declaring Class I status on these lands,” he added.
Another evacuee, Manoj Paryekar recalled attending the Selaulim Evacuees Rehabilitation Meeting in 1971 when Pratapsingh Rane was Chief Minister. “Rane had assured that he would provide Class I status to the evacuee lands within no time. Several decades have passed, and these promises remain only on paper,” said Paryekar.
Slamming Shirodkar for his “insensitive statement” Paryekar remarked that the Ministers today seem to be clueless about the reason why the land was given to the evacuees.
“The plots were given as compensation for the sacrifices made by the original settlers of the area, who left their homes and left behind generations of hard work, all for the construction of Selaulim Dam,” he said.
“Whether the plots are to be left barren or be used for agriculture is the choice of the evacuees. The government has no say in this matter,” added Paryekar.
At the same event, Shirodkar called for the people of Sanguem to make ‘judicial usepeter of the available agricultural lands in the State for farming.
“Providing water and other irrigation facilities will be taken care of by the government,” said Shirodkar.
