l The Bhumiputra Bill is a betrayal of Goa govt’s affidavit to Supreme Court that illegal encroachments will be removed
l Also a betrayal of the Comunidade Code and all Goan laws
l IT IS THE BIGGEST BETRAYAL OF THE MIGRANTS TOO
Have you ever come across a government that goes directly against its own affidavit which is a legal promise to the Supreme Court? The Bhumiputra Act has achieved the impossible.
In 2011 promises were made to Supreme Court to evict encroachers. In 2021 Goa government brings about a law to protect encroachers with a real intention to betray even them after taking their votes.
The act itself the exact opposite of what the Goa Chief Secretary informed the Supreme Court way back in July 2011, that there were enough State laws to ensure that those occupying land illegally in Goa would be evicted. And then in 2021, it brings about this Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill where it states that “notwithstanding anything contained in any other law”, it can actually declare an illegal encroacher, a legal occupant of any land including comunidade and other lands, which it has promised to protect to the Supreme Court. But even that is a dream.
In the history of India is there a single law enacted by a State to give a prize for illegality by cancelling all the laws meant to punish illegality?
Now let us look at the affidavit submitted by Goa’s then Chief Secretary S Srivastava to the Supreme Court in the judgment of Jagpal Singh V State of Punjab. In para 22 of that judgment the Chief Secretaries of all states were asked to prepare schemes for the eviction of illegal and unauthorised occupants. This was a directive of the Court.
In response the Goa Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava had submitted an affidavit that said
– The Panchayat Act contains provisions that enable panchayats to take action against illegal occupants
– Article 371 of the Code of Comunidade gives powers to the Comunidade to take action through the collector for eviction of unauthorised occupants.
– Goa also has the Goa Land (Prohibition of Construction Act) 1995
THE GRAND PROMISE OF 2011
The Chief Secretary then made a commitment to the Supreme Court, “I say that any complaint received in respect of encroachment will be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the above encroachments and action will be taken to clear the encroachment and restore the land to the local authority/government.”
The GRAND BETRAYAL OF 2021 and a mockery of the Goa’s affidavit in Supreme Court
Section 4 of the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini bill says, “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other state law, decree custom…The Bhumiputra Adhikarini may declare a Bhumiputra to be the owner of the dwelling unit….”
This is pure magic. From encroacher to the supposed owner with a bye bye to the Supreme Court.
It is learnt that no senior bureaucrat was willing to sign on this act. The law secretary and the Chief Secretary both had serious reservations and didn’t want to put their signatures on the note to clear the bill.
But there is another twist…
Even the new Bhumiputras will never see their dreams fulfilling. They will only be used for building Hong Kong style skyscrapers. There will be no Bhumiputra village
Well you recently saw the main Minister of Migrants sweetly jiving with dancing comunidade attorneys and their gang whose main job is to protect comunidade lands. They were very happy and moving beautifully on the dance floor.
Were they enjoying the betrayal of migrants? Because it is clear that the dancing minister and his fellow dancers have no will to actually give lands to the migrants. By now you know that the dancing attorneys of the comunidade and their dancing minister has no intention of protecting even comunidade land. But they are not keeping the land for the migrants either, but for the Hong Kong style skyscraper builders.
This drama will soon be clear. The name of the game is to make Goa into Mumbai with a Hong Kong touch.
Soon the other friends of this dancing troupe will join them, the real estate lobby. Let us look at some figures (taking the most modest figures)
Will migrant encroacher be able to afford market rates for the regularisation of their illegally occupied land?
Firstly the future bumiputras will have to submit an application with documents that will actually reveal that they are illegally occupying the land even though they have other identification documents like Aadhaar cards etc.
Then will all the migrants who have a hand to mouth existence be able to afford the market rates for the land they are illegally occupying?
Let’s say there are about 5000 (the absolutely base-level assumption) and they need to legalise 200 sq meters per house, there will be 1,00,000 (1 lakh) square metres up for regularisation. The bare minimum market rate for land is Rs 10,000 per square metre. For 1 lakh square metres the amount the government will get, if all pay up, Rs 1000 crore (this figure could be three times as land rates vary too).
Realistically speaking do you think Goa’s migrants will pay a total of Rs 1000 crores (minimum ) to the government, on land which would be prime for the massive real estate lobby, especially in the Mormugao taluka?
This is where the deals could start
The migrant is likely to be funded by the real estate don. Once the land papers come into the hand of the bhumiputra, he simply buys the land from the new ‘bhumiputra’ to build a mega residential project and give an apartment or two to the bhumiputra. Imagine the real estate killing that would happen, with the builders killing it. Goa in turn gets killed.
Every time laws have been made for anyone, the intended beneficiaries have never got the benefits.
In 2016, 8300 applications were filed for the regularisation of unauthorised structures. In five years only 200 have been regularised.
In 1967 the Mundkar Act came into force. There are still over a lakh of cases of the real sons of the soil, Goans who have not got their land rights
Bhumiputras get ready for the ultimate betrayal. Soon the dancing ministers and attorneys will start beating the drums and welcome the real estate lobby? Now it doesn’t even matter if the name of the act is changed from Bhumiputra to anything else. The act by any other name is still a betrayal.
