Goemkarponn desk
After a lot of empty bluster the Sawant Sarkar has been forced to backtrack on their ill conceived and badly written Bhumiputra bill. Moreover the CM himself is taking pushing a thinly veiled PR campaign on existing land rights issues that is fooling no one. Land rights is one of the most important issues in Goa & AAP entirely supports any legislation or step that will provide Goans their right but Bhumiputra bill is a FRAUD. The BJP’s intention to only use this as an election stunt and not actually give land rights to Goans stands exposed. There are already 25,000 cases of land rights of Niz Goenkars pending for decades under existing laws. The Sawant Sarkar has neither streamlined not paid attention to these processes.
The debate on the Bhumiputra Adhikarni Bill so far has focussed on the word Bhumiputra, and the potential benefit to migrants etc. But only AAP pointed out that it is the word “Adhikarini” that exposes the BJP’s intention to only use this as an election stunt and not actually give land rights to Goans. There is no new Adhikarini being created by this bill. It is the same Talathi, Mamlatdar and Collector, in front of whom there are already 25,000 cases of land rights of Niz Goenkars pending for decades under existing laws.
The break up of cases is as follows Agricultural tenancy act 3500, Mundkar act 3000, Alvara land 3500, Mayem evacuee property 800, Regularisation of unauthirized construction 8500 & for the Forest Rights Act 10,000. These cases are purely delayed because the existing system is not set up nor is it streamlined towards providing Niz Goenkars their houses. Till now Goenkars are still being forced to run pillar to post! At this rate Imagine how many centuries it would take 1.5 lakh families to get the benefit of this new bill, as claimed by the CM himself.
What Goenkars need is more infrastructure to clear the cases. That’s why AAP had promised in our 2017 manifesto that we would complete land rights cases within 2 years by making special courts if required. The reason why the Sawant Sarkar has not implemented this is because the BJP only wanted to fool people into voting for them with a false assurance to grant land rights, and then let this weak and hurriedly-passed law fail in court.
“After AAP’s expose, the CM is now suddenly interested in why the existing cases have not proceeded fast enough. Why did he not think earlier of the real Bhumiputras already waiting for their land rights for decades?” said AAP Goa Convenor Rahul Mhambre
“The very fact that BJP President Tanawade has said the bill could be withdrawn, proves that this was just a Party level stunt for the upcoming elections. Whether the bill is withdrawn or not, AAP will ensure that Goans are warned about BJP’s fraud with a door-to-door campaign” added Mhambre