Team Herald
PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that his government was drafting rules to finalise the legal takeover of ‘no man’s land’ parcels, something that the Opposition and legal experts have criticised as a move to usurp land that may later be claimed by legal heirs.
‘No man’s’ land technically refers to land that has no known claimants or whose owners fail to respond to public notices about them. The government plans to go about acquiring such land on the basis of the The Goa Escheats, Forfeiture and Bona Vacantia Act, 2024 that was notified on October 10. The Act empowers the government to take over such lands.
According to the CM, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on land-grabbing has identified several such properties across the State.
However, Opposition leaders and lawyers have expressed surprise and dismay at the CM’s announcement. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) State president, Advocate Amit Palekar, pointed out several gaps in the proposed land takeover process. “If the government takes over these lands and if legal heirs residing either in Goa or abroad dispute it later, how the government will deal such situations? There is lot of ambiguity in the Land Acquisition and The Goa Escheats Acts,” he said.
According to advocate Gandhi Henriques, the legislation gives no thought to actual legal heirs who have their rights on properties. “They may be residing in Goa or abroad but they have ancestral property rights as per the law existing in the State. For example, in Mormugao Taluka, a cadastral survey plan was made twice, but it does not tally with the provisional survey plan, as Comunidade lands, municipal lands and government lands are shown in the provisional survey plan as belonging to certain individuals,” he added.
Goa Forward Party (GFP) president and MLA Vijai Sardesai was very critical of the State government's plans. “What is the government going to do with the land taken over? They will probably give it to someone, and that is what people are opposing. The government will take over the lands and won't protect Goa, but sell it even faster,” he alleged.
The CM said that the One-Man Commission constituted under retired high court judge VK Jadhav on land-grabbing had made a number of suggestions, which has been considered by the government, adding that special courts will be designated to hear and dispose of all land-grabbing cases. However, Palekar pointed out that the report of the commission had not been made public. “What is the reason for withholding it? The data of number of complaints filed, actually investigated and registered are not in the public domain yet.”