Team Herald
MARGAO: The State administration, wary of opposition from the people, has very silently begun the process of acquiring around 10.5 hectares of land in Goa for the railways to double its track on the South Western Railways route by invoking the policy under the new Land Acquisition Act which does not make it mandatory to inform the land losers of seeking job for a family member as compensation.
The state government which has to acquire the land for the project has invoked the Policy on Procurement of Land under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LAAR Act).
While under the Act, it is mandatory to inform the land loser to ask for a job in the department for which the land is sought to be acquired to a family member as compensation, the policy does not make it mandatory to offer a job to the land loser.
Under the LAAR Act only a no objection from the land owner is required for the government to acquire the land and there is no need for any public notice about it.
The land is supposed to be taken over by the government by way of a conveyance deed after paying the land loser market price and some additional amount for the land. However, there are various forms of compensation enlisted in the act including a job for a family member in the department for which the land is being acquired.
Earlier, if the government needed any land for any purpose, it had to issue a public notice stating the purpose for which the land is required and which land is sought to be acquired. The land acquisition then had two stages with the first being a notification under Section 4 stating that the land is sought to be acquired and later under Section 6 notifying that the land is acquired.
Currently, talathis have been given the responsibility of obtaining consent from the land owners and they have been visiting villages along the tracks getting consent from land owners after explaining to them the purpose for which the land is sought to be acquired. Interestingly, talathis from a different village are given the task instead of asking the talathi attached to the village, to do it.
Most landowners in Sanguem and Quepem talukas are reported to have given their consent. However, some landowners in Salcete and Mormugao talukas have refused to give their consent and have laid down certain pre-conditiions for their consent which the railway authorities will now negotiate with them.
Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition) Roshell Fernandes, refusing to divulge any information about the whole exercise on grounds that the public should not get agitated over it, said that most land owners are losing around 5 to 15 sq mts of land and have therefore given their consent as otherwise the land is useless to them.
She said that while earlier government would acquire agricultural land for about Rs 15 to Rs 20 per square metre, now the market rate for agricultural land works out to Rs 1000 to Rs.2000 per square metre.
In the village of Guirdolim where an emergency gram sabha was held on March 5, most of the land owners are reported to have given their consent for the acquisition including one who stands to lose around 8,000 square metres of land.
In neighbouring village of Chandor, one land owner who is standing to lose around 4,000 square metres of land has refused to give the NOC and instead asked the railways to first give him the long awaited access under the railway bridge to go to his fields.
Some of the land losers who were contacted by the talathis in Chandor and Guirdolim revealed that they were not told about them being entitled for a job in the Railways since the land is sought to be acquired for it.
In fact when one land loser asked whether they would be entitled for a job as compensation, he was reportedly given one telephone number and asked to contact an official of Indian Railways who apparently never answered the phone when called.
It may be recalled that on July 16, 2016, the residents of Cansaulim had objected to laying the second track of railways pointing out that various hardships they are facing and how railways do not even give permission to construct a foot bridge to ease people’s problems.
Probably fearing an objection from the people, the administration has attempted this method of directly approaching the land losers for their NOC without the public knowing about it.
