Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The components representing various Communidade’s in the State have strongly condemned and deplored the attempt by the Government to infringe upon the rights of autonomous village level bodies.
“We are Components representing various Comunidades or Gaonkaries of Goa, their Associations/Forums have gathered unitedly to oppose the “Bhumiputra Adhikarni Bill 2021” and the “Goa Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill 2021″ moved by the Government with intent to regularize encroachments on Comunidade land,” they said.
They said they strongly condemn and deplore the attempt by the Government to infringe upon our autonomous village level bodies.
“We the Comunidade and their Components are the true “bhumiputras” or sons of the Goan soil. The Chief Minister’s statement on 3rd August 2021 is an attempt to hoodwink the true sons of the soil; we demand an apology from the CM for insulting and undermining Goa’s true “bhumiputras”.,” stated the Commndade forum members Tulio de Sousa and Franky Monetira.
They said the proposed legislation is nothing but a blatant and open attempt to demean the true “Bhumiputras” and recognize migrants by defining “Bhumiputra”. Goa’s identity and heritage are being sacrificed at the altar of appeasement of the migrant vote-bank.
“We recall one such attempt made in the past as notified on 22nd June 2001 to regularize illegal constructions on Comunidade lands through an amendment of Article 372- A of the Code of Comunidades, which was met with stiff opposition from all Comunidades unitedly and it proved to be a total failure. However, the Government appears not to have learnt its lesson,” they said.
They condemned the statement of the CM on 3rd August 2021, implying that Comunidades or Gaonkaries are to blame for permitting encroachments on their lands.
“The Comunidades have been fighting tooth and nail and with all their might encroachments on their land before various courts and authorities for several decades and have even obtained favourable orders including from the Hon’ble High Court.
“However, many of these demolition orders have remained on paper due to the lackadaisical attitude and incompetence of the respective Administrators of Comunidades coupled with rampant political interference. We would have hoped that CM had directed concerned authorities to furnish such data,” they said.
They said that it is of paramount importance to note that Comunidades are autonomous village level bodies as envisaged by the Code of Comunidades in force, and the Government only provides administrative tutelage at the expense of the Comunidades through the Administrators of Comunidades of the respective zones and the Director of Civil Administration.
“We also note with regret that passing of the two legislations was made when the Comunidades Convention (as provided for in Article 652 of the Code) is in session, and the process of reconvening the adjourned session of 13th January 2019 is in progress,” they stated.
They demanded that the Government should refrain from passing legislation regularising encroachments/illegal constructions in Communidade lands.
“The Comunidades do reject the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarni Act in any form and demand that the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarni Act be withdrawn and scrapped in totality,” they said