The tenants affected by the recent amendment to the Goa Agricultural Tenancy Act, 1964, wherein tenancy cases have been transferred from the mamlatdar’s office to the Civil Court, have objected to the amendment and demanded the reinstatement of the old law in the interest of farmers and the common man.
The tenants want the old law, where cases were determined by the mamlatdar, to continue to protect their land. They have also claimed that litigations in the civil court will be costlier than the mamlatdar court, and hence, the amendment should be withdrawn. They also stated that after the Tenancy Act came into force, the government had never seriously thought of conducting a survey of the tenants and giving them sanads.
According to most tenants in Ponda taluka, the State government, in the Assembly, passed the amendment to handover cases from the mamlatdar to the Civil Court on August 21, 2014. Instead of giving sanads of the tenanted land to poor tenants who were cultivating those lands since their ancestors’ time, were being made to suffer by going to the Civil Court. They stated that the sunset and contract farming clauses were withdrawn, but the main problem was not solved, due to which they feel that they are sure to lose their lands.
Sadanand Gavde, a farmer from Sangao-Priol, said he had been suffering for the last 24 years as his case was not progressing in the mamlatdar. He said that the Goa Government had not bothered to change the jurisdiction of the tenancy cases. Nobody had demanded the changes, but still the government did it. Now the cases are handed over to the Civil Court, which is burdened with a number of cases. The best remedy was to appoint more mamlatdars, talathis, and gram sevaks to dispose of these cases. Along with me, Many Priol tenants fear that we will lose our land as we have no money to fight the cases in Civil Court as the cost is very high. If the Government is really working in the interest of tenants, it should handover the cases to the mamlatdar and appoints more officials.”
He continued, “Many times the court or mamlatdar asks the poor tenants how they became tenants. The same question needs to be asked to landlords; how did they possess vast lands? Ancient history says that ST communities were the original settlers who established villages and agricultural lands, which were captured by higher class communities through invasions.”
Gomantak Bahujan Mahasangh (GBM) secretary Govind Gavde said, “We formed the Association comprising of tenants of OBC, ST, and other Bahujan communities to fight the amendment to the Agricultural Tenancy Act. Before the government passed the amendment, we had submitted a memorandum with our grievances, but the government did not bother to look into it. Our fight will continue till the government withdraws the amendment and hands over the cases to the mamlatdar.”
He further said, “The government had assured to appoint more mamlatdars to dispose of tenant cases, but later took a U-turn. The problem can be easily solved if more mamlatdars are appointed to issue sanads of the tenanted land to tenants. The handover of cases to the Civil Court has proved costly for tenants. We demand more mamlatdars be appointed and a memorandum has been submitted to the government. The present mamlatdars are busy with administrative elections all year round, so their approach was to give dates at the time of hearing. The Civil Court is not an option, but to appoint more mamlatdars, talathis, gram sevaks and handover the cases to them for speedy disposal.”
