In the second part of ‘Enslaved in its own land’, Bindiya Chari and Franky Gracias look at why the communidades have no money to run its operations.BY BINDIYA CHARI
PANJIM, JAN 15
If on one the hand the implementation of Tenancy Act has depleted the sources of revenue for communidades, on the other hand frauds in the communidades by elected bodies have further robbed their chances of earning any revenue.
With the implementation of the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act, Communidades virtually lost their prime source of income as tenants became deemed owners of communidade lands. Their economic decline compounded further when a decade ago the State government handed over the management of sluice gates in Khazan lands to the tenants’ association.
The economic status of Communidades has now declined to such an extent that administrative offices of Communidades are finding it difficult to pay salaries of employees on time.
Confirmed staff of Communidades draw salaries on par with the scales applicable to government employees. Not surprisingly, since implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, administrative offices are finding all the more difficult to meet their expenses.
“It is really not easy to pay increased expenditure which had escalated since Sixth Pay Commission came to be implemented,” says Vasudev Shetye, Administrator of Central Zone (ACZ).
During last few months the Central Zone (CZ) had to break its fixed deposits to meet increased expenditure. “Almost Rs 10-12 lakh of fixed deposit money had to be used for payment of salaries and we hardly have any savings now.”
Each Communidade has to pay 30 per cent of their income in the form of deramma (revenue) to their respective administrative zone. There are three zones — Central, North and South.
“Only 23 of the 65 communidades under the central zone regularly pay derrama, says Shetye.
Communidades are entitled to earn processing fees when their land is given on lease, and the second component of income is from building premises given on rent.
Even though most Communidade properties are centrally located, the income earned as rent from these is shockingly dismal as there has been no hikes, whatsoever, over the years. (See accompanying story)
Sharadchandra Prabhugaonkar, who is well versed with the functioning of Communidades, opines that “The blame solely rests on the government for this. Whether it is government-appointed administrators or subordinate staff they hardly have complete knowledge of functioning of communidades.”
“Do they even know the Code of Communidade properly?” he questions.
None of the administrative offices of Communidades today have full-time administrators.
“With the drop in income of Communidades it is not possible to have full time officer on duty,” pointed out a government officer, who chose to speak on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, there are umpteen instances of Communidade land having sold by the elected bodies of Communidade itself.
