PEDAMOL: Hearings in the Pedamol illegal houses case before the South Goa Administrator of Comunidades show clear signs of massive encroachments.
South Goa Administrator of Comunidades, Dipesh Priolkar, has revealed that in 80 per cent of the hearings the occupants of the land have no legal document and no basis of ownership to the land.
The comunidade attorney has claimed that there are 123 structures on the land and about 97 of them are in court since 2012.
“I have begun fresh hearings in the remaining 26 cases,” Priolkar said. “More than 75 per cent of the cases have been taken up and the defendants have attended the first hearing and as of now they don’t have anything to prove their ownership to the land,” he added.
“They are showing bills of 2007-08 which means they have encroached on the land. If they (bills) were before 2000 then the houses would have got immunity of the bill because structures were regularised prior to that year,” Priolkar explained.
Comunidade land in Shirvoi being usurped by the custodians of the land was highlighted and followed up by Herald. This forced the comunidade and taluka administration to take action against the hundreds of structures built illegally on the community land.
The Pedamol land grab gains importance as the government is set to introduce a bill regularising structures on comunidade land soon. Priolkar, however, claimed he has no idea about this bill and the impact of that on the illegalities.
There is fear among Goans regarding the Regularisation of Structures on Comunidade Land Bill. Fear has been expressed that if the legislation to regularise structures on comunidade land, is allowed to go through, it will cause lots of resentment across Goa.
The Bill on the lines of the one legalising structures will have a direct impact on land at Shirvoi. Herald had highlighted the land grab of Shirvoi Comunidade and how the officials there, resorted to forgery and illegal transactions and ‘sold’ comunidade plots for years. Over 125 houses were built on the land which was sold to migrants, without any sale deeds. The houses built on the land have got all amenities.
Hearings at the Collectorate have been postponed due to the Assembly session and will be completed after the session ends. The Deputy Collector of Quepem has also initiated a case under Land & Revenue Code and has made the comunidade a party in the same.
