TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Even as the state is on the threshold of yet another Liberation day, the Maem Bhu Vimochan Nagrik Kruti Samiti (MBVNKS) sees little hope that the government will keep its promise of solving the vexed Mayem Evacuee property issue by December 19.
Sitting on a chain hunger strike, villagers have been demanding that they should be given the rights to the land on which they have been residing for decades and be allowed to own this property.
“Till date nothing has happened. There is no sign that the issue is moving forward. The government’s own promise is that they will solve the issue by December 19. We are waiting patiently, giving them time to solve the issue,” Kashinath Mayenkar of the MBVNKS told Herald.
The entire village of Mayem was declared as evacuee property shortly after Liberation of on the grounds that the owners were Portuguese nationals. This declaration however has been challenged and the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
The land originally belonged to the Comunidade of Mayem, which was however confiscated and given to a philanthropist family whose descendants and their heirs are today claiming the right to the property.
Besides original “tenants” of the land, several new houses have recently come up in the property which are “illegal”.
Mayenkar said that the people will have “no option but to build houses illegally because the law is such.”
“If the government is not going to give NOCs the people will build houses and they will be illegal,” Mayenkar said.
A case is pending before the Bombay High Court at Goa against the government for allowing new buildings and houses to illegally come up on the land which is currently vested in a government appointed custodian of evacuee property.
The villagers have also been demanding that the Deputy Speaker Anant Shet resign from his post if the government does not keep up his word. Shet however has not said that he would resign, instead he has promised that he would make common cause with the protestors if the issue is not resolved.
The villagers haven’t been directly targeting the local MLA for the government’s failure despite he being from the ruling party, but said that they would give the government time to act.
Several people called on the protesting villagers, on the first day of their protest including freedom fighters, politicians and others. They will sit on a chain hunger strike till December 19.
