Morlem Colony villagers have land but no ownership

Seventy per cent of Morlem Colony villagers didn't get the ownership of their houses. For the past 34 years, villagers are demanding the Government to give them the ownership of their plots, which were given to them by Goa Government in 1983. Officials from the Mamlatdar are saying that they don't have the land records of Morlem colony.

During the construction of the Anjunem in 1983, the whole Anjunem village was shifted to Morlem village by the then Government and was later named as Morlem colony. This colony is divided into three wards   Gullem, Anjunem and Ansulem.

While shifting from Anjunem to Morlem village, the then Government had allotted each family a 400-sq mt plot for a house and 10,000-sq mt land for agriculture purpose. The government had neither given them any ownership documents nor not anything in writing regarding the ownership, say villagers. From 1985, Anjunem villagers began staying in this colony in 1985 and at present there are around 300 houses located in the area. However, 70 per cent of the owners, still don’t have the ownership of the plots allotted to them by the government.

Without the ownership, these villagers are facing many problems in their day to day life, especially when applying for government schemes and other works which are related to their houses and their agriculture land. As a result they are deprived of the various government schemes.

“The actual benefits of Anjunem dam are not reaching us. For the last many years, we are facing water shortage and also there is no proper water supply to our agriculture fields,” says Ramnath Parab, a villager.

“We have given allotted 10,000 sq mt of agriculture land but we cannot apply for government agriculture schemes because we don’t have the ownership papers. While doing the Krishi Card, the Zonal Agriculture Officer was asking us for the ownership documents,” says another villager.

We have visited the Mamlatdar office Valpoi many times to start the process of ownership. But the Mamlatdar tells us that they don't have the details and the documents of their plots, which were allotted to them by the then govt, says Laxman Parwar, a villager.