AERIAL VIEW
Zuari Agro Chemicals, the agriculture vertical of the Adventz Group, has completed the sale of its Goa fertiliser plant to unlisted joint venture company Paradeep Phosphates for $280 million (about ₹2,135 crore).
Zuari Agro said it will use the proceeds from the transaction will be used to “take care of the long-term liabilities”.
But the issue here is the land where Zuari factory is situated in Samcoale belongs to Sancoale Commundade and was given on lease to the company.
Now, activists and experts say Zuari has no right to sell the land. In fact an activist, Narayan Naik has approached the Prime Minister’s office to stop the illegality.
What a shame on the hand the State government led by Dr Pramod Sawant has appointed a Special Investigations Team to investigate 60-70 land grabbing in the State, and so far, arrests have also been made.
Agreed, the investigations into the land grabbing is a must as many Goans residing outside Goa have complained of their houses being taken over, and the CM needs to be applauded for this step.
However, the question arises why the government, which is showing so much enthusiasm in investigating land grabbing cases, is simply ignoring the biggest land scam in Goa – the Zuari land scam.
Zuari Agro Chemicals, the agriculture vertical of the Adventz Group, has completed the sale of its Goa fertiliser plant to unlisted joint venture company Paradeep Phosphates for $280 million (about ₹2,135 crore).
Zuari Agro said it will use the proceeds from the transaction will be used to “take care of the long-term liabilities”.
But the issue here is the land where Zuari factory is situated in Samcoale belongs to Sancoale Commundade and was given on lease to the company.
Now, activists and experts say Zuari has no right to sell the land. In fact an activist, Narayan Naik has approached the Prime Minister’s office to stop the illegality.
However, despite PMO’s letter to act on the complaint of Social activist, the Sancoale Communidade and the government authorities are just passing the buck
The State authorities are dragging their feet on the Prime Minister’s office’s directions to inquire into the allegations of a scam in the Zuari sale, which is termed the biggest land scam in Goa.
After a letter from a social activist on October 17, 2020, the PMO office, on 17/11/2020, had asked Goa Chief Secretary to look into the matter and also reply to the petitioner and the PMO office.
Following this letter, the Chief Secretary forwarded the letter to the Revenue Department and the Under Secretary forwarded that to the Collector South, who sent it to Dy Collector Mormugao.
Dy Collector Momugao, who in turn asked Mamlatdar to submit a detailed report on January 29, 2021.
Two months later, on March 24, 2021, said the complaint pertains to the allotment of Sancoale Communidade land “as such, the complaint may be forwarded to the office of the Administrator of communidade South Zone for comments and for needful.”
Three months later, on June 9, 2021, Dy Collector Collector Mormugao wrote to Sancoale Communidade to inquire into the matter.
Again on July 22, 2021, Dy Collector Land Acquisition wrote to the Sanale Communidade Administrator to inquire into the matter.
But since July 22, the Sancoale Communidade has been sitting on the matter and even after a reminder by the Revenue Department in December, the Sancoale Communidade is yet to submit an Action Taken Report.
This only proves the government does not want to act against the illegal transfer of land by Zuari.
Actually, there is an urgent need for an SIT to investigate this matter simply because of the amount of land involved.
At the same time, the government must also investigate the politicians and panchayat members in the scam.