MARGAO: A group called Citizens for Democracy have come down heavily on the State government with regard to the alleged land grab of property belonging to the Cortalim church, and have demanded that a vigilance probe be initiated into the dereliction of duty on the part of various government department officials for ignoring multiple complaints.
Members of the group such as Elvis Gomes and Ramiro Mascarenhas lamented that the total collapse in governance is what led to the land scam and they produced documents from the Civil Court in Vasco that prove that the 20,400 sq meters of land belongs to the Cortalim Church. The group then furnished the 42 complaint letters written about this matter, either from the Cortalim Parish Priest Fr Simon Diniz or correspondence between government departments. “If an institution has done all that they can to get their grievance addressed and still nothing has happened, how can one expect any form of justice for the common man,” said Gomes.
He then showed the first letter that was written to the Cortalim Sarpanch in May.
Gomes then updated, in chronological order of the letters that were sent by Fr Diniz to the Mormugao Block Development Office, South Goa District Collectorate, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Governor, Cortalim MLA, Public Grievance cell and other departments such as Power, Town and Country Planning, Water Resources, Forest, Police and Revenue.
The letters had been sent to the Ministers of these departments as well, while the Cortalim Sarpanch was written to again, with the names and details of the alleged encroachers.
Gomes then showed copies of letters written by various government departments mainly to the secretary of the Cortalim panchayat, Verna police, Deputy Director of Panchayats and Mormugao Deputy Collector, asking that the matter be looked into. “Fr Diniz has even written back to these departments asking what action has been taken regarding their own correspondence to the panchayat etc,” Gomes added.
