Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira accused the ruling BJP government of dangling an election jumla in the form of the Mhaje Ghar Scheme, that is set to be unveiled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference alongside party president Amit Patkar, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemão and South Goa MP Capt Viriato Fernandes, Ferreira warned people against applying for the scheme saying that such data will be misused by the government to blackmail them closer to the elections.
“Under this law, people will file applications, in which they will voluntarily offer information about their illegal houses, state the extent of their illegalities and the nature of the illegalities, and all this data will remain with the government. Tomorrow if you go against the government, they will have all this data to use against you,” Adv Ferreira said, adding that if tomorrow the High Court quashes this law, the government will have ready-made data about whose houses to be demolished.
“By giving this application you will be axing your own foot,” he said.
He also said that the opposition Congress had offered to foolproof the government’s bill by moving amendments in the assembly, which the government rejected. The amendments would make the bill more palatable when it is challenged before the High Court.
“When you bring a law, if you are really concerned about the people, it has to be such that it will sustain. We had also moved amendments, with a view that if amended suitably they will stand the scrutiny of the courts,” Adv Carlos said.
“By the time these applications are processed, we will be at the doorstep of the next elections and the party in power will threaten people to have their houses demolished if they do not vote for the BJP. This is vote bank politics,” Adv Carlos said.
“We are not against the people, but these laws are not being brought for their benefit. They will be struck down and their homes are liable for demolition,” he added.
“When we raised it in the assembly, we showed the Supreme Court judgement, which repeatedly struck down such kinds of laws. This law is to put people in trouble. We maintain that this is an election jumla. This is a recipe for disaster for these people, especially those who will have their houses by an act of the government,” he added.
“I had also released a video in which I said that Goans will not be able to benefit from this law given the terms and conditions that have been included. There is a condition in a clause that if you own a plot, either full or part or a share in a property you are ineligible. In Goa you know almost everyone who has migrated within the state owns a share of property in his ancestral village. If such people apply under this law, you can go to jail for two years and your house will be demolished,” he also said.
