MARGAO: Goencho Ekvott (GE) on Monday questioned how can the Directorate of Settlement & Land Records (DSLR) say it does not possess the old cadastral plans in its office and raised concerns whether the government will use this route to acquire land belonging to villagers for South Western Railway (SWR) for the railway double tracking project.
GE Founder Orville Dourado Rodrigues pointed out that Chief Minister (CM) Pramod Sawant had tried to deflect a pointed query fielded by Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa in the Assembly about whether the Old Cadastral Plans (prior to promulgation in 1968) of three revenue villages of Velsao, Pale and Issorcim were available with DSLR.
“The CM tried to deflect the matter as if of a very trivial nature. The Cadastral plan is the most important document to establish the ancestral rights of the locals especially to the land abutting the existing South Western Railway track which now the government of Goa intends to usurp as Government land in favour of the Railways since the same was not assigned a Survey No in 1971,” said Rodrigues.
“Several villagers have addressed letters to Directorate of Settlement & Land Records to keep them in the loop when the re-survey of land from Mormugao to Kullem in accordance with the recent gazette is to be conducted within the next three months. It is important to note that these villagers have documents from the Portuguese era which establish their land rights up to the railway tracks and the opposition to the double tracks is the strongest in these revenue villages,” Rodrigues added.
