Cash crunch blocking land acquisition for kabrastan

MARGAO, FEB 16
Hazard a guess why acquisition proceedings to acquire land admeasuring 30,191 square meters for the proposed kabrastan at Sonsodo have hit a block?
Well, cash starved Margao Municipality — which literally struggled to pay salaries of its employees last month – has till date defaulted in depositing 80 per cent of the total Rs 30 lakh value of the land in question with the land acquisition officer.
With the civic body’s coffers running empty as evident by the fact that the Municipal administration had to fall back on two fixed deposit certificates to pay the salary bill, the Municipality is hoping against hope that the Director of Municipal Administration will coming to its rescue by sanctioning a grant in aid for the Kabrastan project.
Herald understands that the government has already notified section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, but has withheld publication of Section 7 of the Act on grounds that the Civic body has failed to deposit 80 per cent of the total cost of acquisition.
In fact, if officials are to be believed, directions have been issued to Margao Municipal Chief Officer Prasanna Acharya to ensure the civic body deposits the amount at the earliest with the land acquisition officer to proceed with Section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act.
When contacted, Acharya admitted that the Civic body have till date not deposited 80 per cent of the value of the land with the Land Acquisition and is awaiting the sanction of funds by the Director of Municipal Administration to meet the situation.
“I have been told by sources that the DMA has cleared the funds for the Kabrastan land acquisition project. I will check up with the DMA and take necessary action”, he said.
Incidentally, Acharya informed that his office has already written to the Margao Communidade to hand over possession of the land in question to the Civic body for development pending acquisition.
However, sources in the know informed that only part of the land admeasuring 30,191 square meters belong to the Margao Communidade, with the balance land belonging to a private party. It is not out of place to mention here that the Margao Municipality had adopted a resolution only to adopt the Communidade land, but later zeroed in on the private property after realizing that the Communidade owns only around 15,000 square meters at Sonsodo.
A senior district Official explained: “Unless the government notifies section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act, the Collector cannot go ahead and take the order of acquisition of the land in question under the Act. Under section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act, the government directs the Collector to take the order for acquisition of the land in question.”
The official further stated that Section 7 of the Act will come into play only as and when the Margao Civic body deposit 80 per cent of the value of the land.
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