Attorney of Margao and Aquem Comunidades Celestinho Noronha while admitting that Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardessai’s sought his opinion on the idea of planting trees on comunidade land cautioned that proper procedures will have to be followed as the comunidades are not empowered to issue no objection certificates. “As per the Code of Comunidades, we cannot just give a NOC. What we do is adopt a resolution and that is then sent to the Administrator of Comunidades for further action,” he said admitting that Vijai had asked for his opinion on the matter. “Vijai had called me to seek my opinion and I did tell him that it is a good idea and even said he could make the announcement. However, proper procedure has to be followed,” he said and added that he had told the minister to first send a proposal from the govt dept concerned to the comunidade. “Once the proposal comes from the head of the department, the comunidade will call for a general body meeting to discuss it and accordingly adopt a resolution,” which he said would be sent to the Revenue Dept which will have to issue the NOC.
‘Comunidades cannot give NOC for planting trees’
