PANJIM: The Goa Assembly on Friday witnessed uproar over the Serula Comunidade land scam with Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte hinting at a State Cabinet Minister’s involvement and charged BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral of being part of the illegal rehabilitation project at Serula and demanded an inquiry.
“The rehabilitation project is a big scam and is being carried out in connivance with the ruling BJP government. One of your ministers is also involved in the scam,” Khaunte alleged. A point of order was raised by Francisco Pacheco, who sought to know the name of the minister.
“I would not like to get into a fight between you and the tourism minister,” Khaunte said passing an indirect hint.
The entire issue cropped up during Question Hour, Friday morning, when Khaunte sought to know whether government has granted any approval for implementation of the resolution passed by the Serula Comunidade to rehabilitate kiosk owners from survey No. 376/6 to Survey No. 379/1 of Socorro village.
The MLA brought to the notice of the House that a huge structure has already been constructed without any occupancy certificate and clearance and a payment of Rs 3 lakh had been made by the managing committee of the Comunidade to town and country planning (TCP) and panchayat, despite the fact that High Court has restrained the managing committee from taking any such decision since July, last year.
It came as a shocker when deputy chief minister and TCP Minister Francis D’Souza informed the House that there are no such details/records available in the office of Administrator of Comunidade, North. “The present managing committee has stated that they have not seen any files of rehabilitation project of Serula Comunidade and have not given any permission. Hence FIR has also been filed with the police to locate the missing documents,” D’Souza said.
As such, Khaunte urged the government to call for an inquiry into the entire episode or issue eviction order to the rehabilitation project. He said government should form a House committee on the issue and investigate.
However, the minister refused to give any assurance on the issue stating that two matters on this are currently pending before the High Court, while one has been disposed by the same court.
