ALFRED FERNANDES
alfred@herald-goa.com
SANGUEM: Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate visited Selaulim Rehabilitation Colony at Wadem in Sanguem August last year and assured the Selaulim Evacuees of solving all their pending issue within a period of 45 days. It was followed by a number of administrative work and meetings at the official level but even eleven months now, the solution to the long pending demands of the Selaulim Evacuees remained elusive.
The Revenue Minister is now believed to have given August 15 as the deadline for solving the evacuees’ problems, said Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar.
Gaonkar revealed that in a recent meeting with the Monserrate, she has reportedly assured to settle the issue by August 15. But as experience has taught Selaulim Evacuees not to be optimistic they still wonder if they have to wait for another decade to get their issues resolved.
In August last year, Gaonkar had submitted a memorandum to Monserrate highlighting various issues concerned to Selaulim evacuees and which have remained unresolved for three decades of their rehabilitation.
The issues included allocation of Class I status to the evacuees, granting of Sanads to the families, who were allocated alternative plots. After the plots allocated to them they were found to have gone under submergence area due to subsequent increase in height of the Selaulim Dam. The allocation of housing and agricultural plots to around 89 missing families, who did not get any benefit from the government even after having sacrificed their lands for Selaulim Dam.
Gaonkar in his memorandum had also expressed the need for a resurvey in the village as many beneficiaries had encroached into open lands, which otherwise could have been sufficient to solve the land issue concerning missing families.
Immediately after the memorandum was produced, Revenue Minister had a meeting with the concerned government officials on August 29 where Monserrate promised to resolve the long pending issues within 45 days.
The meeting was later followed by Monserrate visiting one of the three rehabilitated colony at Wadem in Sanguem to look into ground realities and to chalk out plans for settling the issues practically within the framed time limit of 45 days.
Subsequently eight surveyors were pressed into service to survey the open area which was encroached by some of the villagers. However after few days of commencement of resurvey operations, the surveyors who otherwise would be on field on daily basis disappeared leaving the project work incomplete. Sources at the Office of Deputy Collector Sanguem could not throw much light on the status of the procedure.
Former Deputy Collector Sanguem Ajay Gaude was on record of having submitted the report on the current picture and problems plaguing Selaulim evacuees in November last year. Gaude in his report had claimed that out of the total 552 beneficiaries, 216 had managed to get Class I status following lengthy procedure, while rest 336 beneficiaries were waiting for the same.
Gaude was transferred from Sanguem soon after the submission of the report, and not much follow-up was done since then.
Incidentally, Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar took up the matter to Monserrate again earlier this month and apparently the latter said Gaonkar that the issue is in the final stages and that the same will be resolved by August 15.
