Who owns the land and water Sir ?

tate Vs MPT, who owns the Mormugao waters?

During the public hearing on Friday for the Liquid Cargo berth cum Cargo, Fishing and Passenger Jetty, Advocate Savio Correia from Vasco raised a crucial question that left many in the audience including the MPT officials speechless. MPT plans to build a finger pier on Vasco beach which will extend for 520 meters into the sea and have a width of 175 mts. Around 65000 sq mts of land will be reclaimed for the project.

According to information obtained under RTI by Savio Correia, earlier 61,287 sq mts was reclaimed for Berth 5 & 6. The South West Port Ltd are the leaseholders of these berths. Another 34,857.23 sq mts of reclaimed land is leased to Adani Port Terminal Pvt Ltd.

Interestingly, this land had never been surveyed. In a Legislative Assembly Question by Alexio Lourenco in Feb 2018, the government had informed that the Government was aware that MPT had reclaimed huge tracts of land and that the government had granted approval for the survey in 2017. However, the survey had not yet started and this reclaimed land has no survey numbers.

The Collector of South Goa had informed Herald recently that he is aware of the issue and a survey has been ordered.

MPT cornered over land ownership during Public hearing

During the public hearing, Savio Correia showed two RTI replies that he had received from MPT a few months apart.  “In one RTI they claim that as per the central government notification whatever comes within the Port Limits from the Breakwater to Cortalim Ferry is their land.”, Correia told the MPT officials. In the EIA document, they did not mention the survey numbers on which why will be constructing the project. They simply claimed that the area is under their jurisdiction.

 “In another RTI they gave a list of survey numbers of the land which they claim that they own. That list did not have any survey numbers of Khariwada beach on which they are constructing the proposed jetty.” Continued Correia. When Correia asked the MPT officials among whom was the Chief Engineer of MPT Smt L.A. Mathew, they responded by saying that “We stand by what was given under RTI and mentioned in the EIA report”

Whose land was reclaimed land and who is the owner of the reclaimed land?

This ambiguity over MPT’s claim over the coastal waters of Zuari and the abutting land has existed since Liberation. This was revealed when Savio Correia along with Edwin Mascarenhas, of Chicalim, collected several documents from MPT, Captain of Ports and the Goa Government.

According to MPT “any land reclaimed/formed /created within the “Port Limits” will be the Port’s land”. MPT justifies this claim by citing Section 2(q) of the Major Port Trust Act 1963 which defines “Port” as any major port to which the Act applies such limits as may, from time to time, be defined by the Central Government for the purposes of this act by notification in the Official Gazette, and until a notification is so issued, within such limits as may be defined by the Central Government under the provisions of the Indian Port Act.

“According to MPT, since the reclaimed area is situated within Port Limits as mentioned in the scheduled area and hence the Port is the only interested party of the property surrounding the reclaimed area.”, said Correia

The documents under RTI reveal another shocking claim. Revenue Department claims that the land reclaimed by MPT belong to the Government. This was stated a file noting dated 16/8/2017 by the Revenue Department. According to the Land Revenue Code, all land including the bed of the sea and of harbours and creeks below the high water marks and of rivers which are not the property of any person is declared to by the property of the Government.  

“In other words,  while the Goa Land Revenue Code clearly declares the State government as the proprietor of the river beds. Our legal system, based on English Common Law, includes the public trust doctrine as part of its jurisprudence. The State is the trustee of all natural resources which are by nature meant for public use and enjoyment. Public at large is the beneficiary of the sea-shore, running waters, airs, forests and ecologically fragile lands. The State as a trustee is under a legal duty to protect the natural resources. These resources meant for public use cannot be converted into private ownership   ”. clarifies Savio

When was the confusion over proprietorship created?

In 1973, MPT had laid claim over the rent collected from firms who were occupying the land falling under the maritime jurisdiction (port limits of MPT). P. Noronha, the Under Secretary of Industries and Labour had written to the Captain of Ports informing him that MPT has no right to collect any rent from these firms. He further stated that “as per the LRC, the collector is the allotting authority in respect of Government land. While allotting the land falling under the maritime jurisdiction he will have to obtain NOC from Captain of Ports/MPT, within whose jurisdiction the area falls”.

The letter made a clear distinction between ownership/proprietorship of the land and jurisdiction of the land. In other words, the Under Secretary stated that MPT or Captain of ports is not the owner of the Zurai river, the bed of the river or the foreshore land (the banks of the river).

In response, the MPT wrote to the Chief Secretary claiming that “Since the title of the foreshore land, within the limits of this port, rests in this administration, the contentions of the Industries & Labour department is not correct”.

The statement made by MPT was misleading since no title was ever conferred of the foreshore land up to the Aggasaim Cortalim ferry point, to MPT. Unfortunately, the Chief Secretary instead of defending Goa’s land rights forwarded the issue to the central Ministry of Shipping & Transport. The MoST supported MPT’s claim by making another misleading statement. In its letter dated 9/9/1975, the MoST stated that according to the clause 29(1)(a) of Port Trust Act 1963, whatever vested in the Central government including properties which vested in any authority or authorities, the State Government other than the Central Government for the purposes of the port, thereafter, vested in the Board and as such, the State Government may have no right to collect the rent/licence fee and has on locus standi over the areas.

Based on this letter, the Government of Goa back then had wrongly accepted that the proprietorship rights of MPT over the areas within the port limits.

Does MPT own the land under Port Limits?

To answer this question we have to understand the clause 29(1)(a) of the Port Trust Act 1963 mentioned above. It states that “all property, assets and funds [and all rights to levy rates] vested in the Central Government or, as the case may be, any other authority for the purposes of the port immediately before such day, shall vest in the Board”.

In 1962, the immovable and movable property including lands situated in the area of the port of Mormugao which was in possession of the Junta was handed to the Administrative Officer. The Central Government is justified in extending the port limits to regulate any private development around the Port. However, there is no law that confers proprietary/ownership rights over the extended port limits to MPT simply by virtue of bringing these areas under the definition of port limits.

But MPT believes otherwise. In convoluted justification by MPT to the Deputy Collector in December 2017, they have used the definition of “Port” under the Major Port Trust Act and claimed that the reclaimed area is situated within port limits and hence will be Port and that the Port is the only interested party of the property surrounding the reclaimed land, thus conveniently ignore the fundamental difference between “Port Limits” and Port area/assets/ property.

This fact is confirmed in the concession agreement executed by MPT and the predecessor of South West Port Ltd, wherein the land conceded for development of the terminal was only 40,200 sqmts and it was stated that “the remainder of the area occupied by SWPL admeasuring about 61,287 sqmt is water area reclaimed from River Zuari that vested in the Government of Goa”

Are Goans being robbed of their land?

MPT has since 2010 leased out a total of two lakh sqmt area of Zuari waters and foreshore land in the Sancoal Bay and the Nauxim Bay each to two Marina companies for annual lease amounting to lakhs of Rupees. The Goa Government is the rightful owner of this area and therefore the lease has led to a loss in revenue to the State Government.

“In case of this proposed liquid cargo berth project, hundreds of fishermen living along the coast of Vasco beach will eventually be displaced. The MPT does not own the area where it intends to construct this project including the area where the fishermen are living. Even the MPT, in its Environment Impact Assessment document, does not declare itself the owner of the land. Instead, they have used misleading statement such as  ‘the proposed project development is within existing Mormugao Port Area’ and that ‘all constructions are proposed on the reclaimed marine area within the Port Basin under MPT Jurisdiction’”, said Correia.

Correia claims that MPT has been taking over Goa’s land by falsely claiming ownership over the Port limit area and even reclaiming land from the Zuari River.