BY RAJAN NARAYAN

Administrators and corrupt elected committees of communidades have illegally leased land to mine owners, allotted the same plot to three different parties and have condoned large scale encroachments.

While advocates for communidades may well argue that the age-old system is imperative to ensure the proper distribution and allocation of land to gaoncars, it has been revealed that corrupt communidade communities are allotting land to mine owners and mega project builders.

For the first year in centuries, gaoncars of communidades will not get their zons (annual dividend) this year. This is because, according to the government, communidades are bankrupts and do not have any money. The government, of course, is reluctant to admit that communidades are bankrupt because successive governments have not just been acquiring, but grabbing communidade land for so called public purposes. A large part of the land acquired by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) to sell to land sharks in the name of setting up Special Economic Zones to promote employment for bhailes was communidade land. The land acquired to set up the dubious and controversial Dona Paula IT habitat and Socorro IT Park was communidade land. Part of the land acquired for the so called Food Park at Betul was communidade land. And, no doubt, land that will be acquired for the Yuvraj’s medical estate scam will be communidade land.

Communidades, which go back to the pre-Portuguese period of Goan history, were co-operatives of the original residents of the villages of Goa. It was the communidades which took care of the elaborate network of the ‘mannos’ (irrigation channels and sluice gates) which enabled Goan villagers to reap rich harvests of paddy during the agricultural season and fish during the off season. The communidade land, which was jointly owned by all gaoncars, was given on lease to individual families for cultivation. Part of the proceeds of the output and the income from the same went to the communidades. This income earned by the communidades was distributed as the dividend to all members of the communidade, irrespective of which part of the world they had relocated to. Besides being a source of income the communidades maintained the ties of the Goan villagers with their places of birth and strengthened community bonds.

NEW SYSTEM

CONTRARY to the recommendation made by experts to retain the system of the communidades, which formed the backbone of Goan agriculture, the central Indian government, after liberation, introduced the Panchayati Raj system, which became the administrative body replacing the centuries old communidades.
The communidades were further weakened when they were brought under the Tenancy Act, which meant that people who had taken communidade land on lease for cultivation became owners, even though they did not cultivate the land. The situation was further compounded because the responsibility for looking after the bunds and sluice gates was handed over to the Tenants Association which was more interested in auctioning and often deliberately colluding in the damage of the bunds to make a quick buck from pisciculture at the cost of agriculture. So much so, the production of paddy in the rich khazan lands has gone down from 17% of the total food production to seven percent in recent years.

The government further undermined the communidades by permitting government officers to get communidade land allotted for themselves to build bungalows even though this was against the rules of communidades. The communidades, historically, were only permitted to allot small plots of land to the members of the communidades to build residential houses for their personal use. There has been rampant misuse and abuse of the powers vested in the president, the attorney and the treasurer of the communidades. In several cases, the elected members of communidades themselves misused and abused their powers. A dramatic example of the misuse and abuse of powers by the managing committee of the communidade was highlighted on July 31, 2009, in the recently concluded session of the Legislative Assembly.

LEASED TO MINES

IN reply to a question from Rajesh Patnekar, the Bicholim MLA, the Minister for Revenue, Jose Philip D’Souza, revealed that the former managing committee of the Sirsaim communidade - consisting of president Agnelo D’Souza, attorney Pandurang Parab and treasurer Nashiket Parab signed an agreement with four mining companies, without the approval of either the administrator of communidades or the government. The former managing committee is alleged to have made lakhs and crores of rupees by permitting Salgaocar Mining Industries, Trimuti Exports, Sesa Goa Ltd and Infrastructures Logistics Pvt Ltd to use communidade land for mining.

There are also being admissions of large scale encroachments on communidade land with the patronage and blessings of both the elected members of the communidades and, more often, by government-appointed administrators of the communidades. Replies to Assembly questions reveal that the Managing Committee of thirty-nine rich communidades, thirty of which are in south zones. The elected bodies have been superseded by nominated bodies. These nominated bodies, dancing to the tunes of political masters, have permitted or condoned large scale encroachment on communidade land.

In the Bardez taluka, there have been 40 cases of encroachment of communidade land. Vithal Thamankar, with the alleged blessings of the Narvekars, is reported to have encroached on 800 sq ms of communidade land and has built structures for storing cement and has a vegetable shop, a chicken shop and a laundry - all built on encroached communidade land. Among the encroachers of the communidade land in Bardez is the national petroleum company Bharat Gas, which has encroached on 100 sq ms of land in Tivim. The number of encroachments on communidade land in Usgao in Ponda exceeds 30. The amount of land encroached on ranges from 40 sq ms to 225 sq ms. In Bicholim, in the Velgeum area, 1160 sq ms of communidade has allegedly been encroached on by one Gokuldas Gaonkar. In Quepem taluka, 2994 sq ms has been encroached on by Guna Naik, 6098 sq ms by Rajaram Bandekar and 1251 sq ms by Curchorem MLA, Shyam Satardekar. In the Sanguem Taluka, there are twelve cases of encroachment with Umesh Mardolkar grabbing 10,000 sq ms of communidade land.

BENAMI COMPANIES

IN Canacona taluka, almost 50,000 sq ms of communidade land has been encroached on and allegedly sold illegally to a party from Delhi, through a benami company owned by Vishwajit Rane. In the Marmugao taluka, there are four cases of encroachment on communidade land. There are as many as thirty-two cases of encroachment on communidade land in South Goa. The encroachments are probably huge because, unlike in the case of other zones, the area of land encroached is not mentioned in the reply furnished by the Revenue Minister. Among those accused of encroaching on communidade land are Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation and Chowgule Industries.

Besides, encroachment of the communidade land there are also a large number of cases of encroachment of government land. In the Tiswadi taluka, there are over ten cases of encroachment of government land, including by the Herald Managing Director, Raul Fernandes, in Taleigao of 119 sq ms on property bearing survey no. 236/1. The Managing Director of the Herald has been accused of encroaching on government land by fencing off 119 sq ms. Among the others accused of encroaching on government land are the GMC and Sunanda Bandari. The number of cases of encroachments on government land in Bardez taluka is 48. The big encroachers in Bardez taluka are Norman D’Souza and Antonio Carvalho, who is alleged to have encroached on 670 sq ms in Calangute. The committee of a Maruti temple in Penha de Franca is alleged to have encroached on 436 sq ms of government land.

In Pernem taluka, Agnelo Fernandes is alleged to have constructed an illegal wooden bridge across the river on encroached government land. In Bicholim taluka, Surya Krishna Gaonkar is alleged to have encroached on 1250 sq ms while, in Sattari, Ramesh Gaonkar is alleged to have encroached on 15,000 sq ms of government land. In other talukas also, there have been large scale encroachments of communidade land.

While the Revenue Minister and the government refuse to take action against illegal grabbing of government and communidade land, legitimate gaoncars who apply for land for residential purposes are harassed by allegedly corrupt communidade committees. This is dramatised by the case of Harshada Chodankar who, being a gaonkar, had sought allotment of land surveyed under number 154/0, plot no. 21 situated in the jurisdiction of Penha de Franca panchayat, belonging to the communidade of Serula to build a residence for herself. After allotting the plot to her, the communidade apparently allotted the same plot to one Samiullah Bepari, who apparently told them that he was not aware that Chodankar had applied for the same plot and that Agnelo Lobo, president of the Penha de Franca communidade, had taken Rs. 20,000 to allot the plot to Bepari. Worse still, apparently the same plot was allotted to a third person and Chodankar was asked to take an alternative one.

To quote the genuine gaoncar Chodankar, "I was literally harassed for three long years and deprived of getting temporary possession of the plot. Seeing I am adamant, they agreed to give temporary possession and invented yet another idea to squeeze money from me. I was told that development charges were Rs. 300 per sq m. On inquiry, I came to know it is Rs. 250 per sq m. They also told me that I should pay at the rate of Rs. 790 per sq m instead of Rs. 300 per sq m - a sum that would amount to Rs. 2,84,400 instead of Rs. 1,08,000 - an excess of Rs. 1,76,400 from what I should be paying. The justification for this inflated amount? The increase in the rate of land.