TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: After remaining silent at the time of passing the crucial Goa Agricultural Tenancy (Amendment) Bill 2014 in the Goa Assembly, the Congress party has now demanded that government withdraw the proposed amendments, on the ground that the bill defeats the very objective of land reforms. The party expressed fears that there would be further loss of agricultural land to the real estate lobby under the pretext of contract farming.
The amendments to the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964, were passed during the monsoon session of the State Assembly. While the Congress had maintained silence during the passage of the bill, it was the BJP legislators who had raised minor objections.
“If we have not raised objection then, that does not mean we cannot raise objections now. Such a crucial amendment, should have not been passed without consulting people and tenants, who will face the major implications of this act,” senior Congress leader and former union law minister Ramakant Khalap told the media on Thursday at the Congress House in Panjim. Khalap said that he was talking on the issue on behalf of the Congress party at the request of the new GPCC president even though he was not an official party spokesman.
Khalap demanded that the government immediately withdraw the proposed amendments, confer powers to decide on tenancy cases back to mamlatdar and include a sunset clause for itself to complete the formalities of vesting the land upon tenants within a certain time frame. “We see huge amount of expensive litigation, delay in settling the cases and total defeat of progressive social legislation (1964 Act),” he alleged.
