MARGAO: It was sheer negligence and failure to follow the procedure that has resulted in the property under Survey No 416/4 in Mazilwado of Benaulim being declared as “Enemy Property” and is presently in the possession of the Custodian of Enemy Property.
Carmela de Sa Fernandes who inherited the property by virtue of her marriage to Filipe de Rosario Fernandes was born in Goa when it was under the Portuguese rule and hence was originally a Portuguese national.
Following Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule in 1961, she automatically became an Indian citizen and then following her marriage she migrated to Karachi in Pakistan where her husband was employed just like many Goans who were working there then.
Subsequently in the late 60s she returned to Goa along with her husband and three children and lived in Goa where she also gave birth to two other children. Significantly after returning to Goa, the Fernandes family applied for Indian citizenship.
Vide an order dated April 25, 1970 the then Undersecretary in the Home Department S B Deshpande granted Indian citizenship to Filipe de Rosario Fernandes and his three minor children. Vide another order dated December 31, 1971 the then Joint Secretary to the Home Department B R Patel granted Indian citizenship to Carmela de Sa Fernandes.
However on April 2, 1974 the then Collector of Goa sent a report to the Home Department listing out the various properties in Goa that belonged to people being citizens of Pakistan and without realizing that the Fernandes family were granted Indian citizenship, their property at Mazilwado in Benaulim was also included.
While sending the report, the Collector did not serve any notice to the Fernandes family or inform them that their property will be enlisted as Enemy Property and hence the property was termed to be Enemy property and even the mutation was carried out without giving any notice to the actual owners of the property.
It was only in 2011 when the descendants of said Filipe and Carmela wanted to renovate their house, they realized that the property was declared to be Enemy property and accordingly they filed a petition before the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court where the matter is presently being heard.
However, taking advantage of the fact that the property is listed as Enemy property, the owner of the adjacent property who is related to them has been unnecessarily harassing the family members and even alleged that they demolished a common wall shared by him.
Surprisingly, when the panchayat went for a site inspection on April 21, 2018 following a complaint by Mario Britto Fernandes, the next door relative, the complainant did not allow the inspecting team to see the so called common wall that was demolished.
The irony is that as the man of the house Carmo Fernandes is working abroad, his wife Vita who has her school going children to look after, has to bear the brunt of all the harassment meted out to the family primarily through false and baseless complaints lodged against her.
