SANGUEM: They willingly gave up their ancestral land for the sake of the state and its needs. These 72 families, whose ancestral lands were taken away, or building the Selaulim land found themselves under a unique classification — “missing”. Yes, missing from their own land because they were not present when the survey operations to identify evacuees were done.
35 years later these 72 “missing “ families will finally be allotted wither housing or agricultural land against lands taken from them 35 years ago.
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They learned this during the visit of Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate on Friday.
The minister visited the area a day after the commencement of resurvey operations at Wadem Colony No 1 to ascertain the vacant government land in the area. During her visit to Wadem, Monserrate also visited Selaulim Dam and also had a meeting with the officials attached to Water Resources Department (WRD). After verifying the ongoing resurvey operations, she assured the Selaulim Evacuees of solving their problems in the next three to four months.
The minister also promised to take up the issue of ownership rights of the Selaulim Evacuees on priority basis. “Those who have still not got Class I status of the agricultural and housing plots allocated to them some thirty-five years ago, will be provided with the new status soon,” added Monserrate.
For the uninitiated, Class 1 status alone gives them full ownership of the land as well as the right to sell, which their present Class II status doesn’t allow them to.
During her visit, Monserrate also visited the Bhandara at Wadem and got acquainted herself with the functioning of the Bhandara and the steps that could be taken to solve the water supply problems faced by Selaulim Evacuees.
She also had a detailed look at the original site plan of the rehabilitation site which was explained to her by the WRD officials.
A large number of affected villagers also had a word with the Revenue Minister and explained to her of the problems faced by them on account of the non-allocation of agricultural and housing plot for the past four decades.
A relieved Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar, who was also present, said that problems of Selaulim Evacuees problems would be solved in the next few months. He thanked the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jennifer Monserrate and WRD Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues for taking the issue in the right perspective.
Deputy Collector Ajay Gaude, Mamlatdar Manoj Korjuenkar, and WRD officials were also present.
