Former Bureacrat and now Congress leader Elvis Gomes disclosed at a press conference how large sale fraudulen land deals are taking place in Goa and especially in Pernem taluka where Mopa Airport City is on fast track now…with him are some residents of Pernem taluka.
By Tara Narayan
Congressman Elvis Gomes says land deals done in Pernem taluka in north Goa have been wrongly executed and is demanding a judicial review. That is if the present government of Goa cares about the future of Goans and Goa!
WHO cares about Goa and Goans anymore? It is no longer news that a powerful land mafia now operates in Goa and it is getting stronger by the day. The Congress party’s Elvis Gomes is the right person to understand land deals and interpret them for what they are and lately he has been listening to the anxieties of the ordinary people of Goa, on what is happening in Pernem taluka where work on a grandiose Mopa Airport City is on in full swing currently.
Mopa Airport City is on fast forward mode by hook or by crook. Never mind that so many local farmers and villagers whose land has been taken over in dubious transaction deeds have not even received a fair deal! What’s new about that in Goa? About 60% of the farming villagers have been affected due to a takeover of their land around about Mopa airport, so that sports city, electronic city, link road to airport, national highway expansion and so on may be built to rake in the profits of the future.
Many of the people from whom the land has been taken have not even been paid yet. And those who have signed on the dotted line have been paid measly sums. Most of the land deals taking place in Pernem taluka have been executed without proper documenting. Says Elvis Gomes, in Dhargal village land acquisition is used as a weapon threatening and frightening poor farmers to sell out to private buyers: “Past instances of poor compensation in land acquisitions when weighed against tempting offers by land mafia compel farmers to part with their lands and go for mutation of land records. Thereafter, the land mafia having nexus with ministers and officers go for sale deeds on the basis of such inadmissible documents.”
Such frauds committed on the people are surely punishable? Not surprisingly complaints are now coming in about the manner in which large scale acquisition of land has and is still taking place presumably. It’s been happening over time but now it is full speed ahead. Briefing media people on Sunday, Sept 25, 2021, Elvis Gomes pointed out that both forms 1 & 14 being used in these land deals are being misused. This documentation is not legal, apart from the irony of compensations as low as Rs25 and Rs40 per sq ft. It is clear that little justice is being done for those who have been eking out a living cultivating their tenanted fields. Until Mopa Airport City came along to turn their lives upside down.
INVALID DOCUMENTS
THE airport is on fast track now and from the sound of it there’s a huge mess with litigation on the way with landlords and tenants unsure about who signs the papers and who collects payments. Many are not even aware that Form I & XIV or 14 are not valid documents for transaction of these land deals. It is alarming that already an estimated 5,000 land deals have taken place. This is also testified by Congress leaders from Pernem, Vithu Morajkar, Dilip Parab and Pernem Block Congress president Rudresh Deshprabhu, who were present at the press conference.
Warns Gomes that for some time now the Congress party has been alleging large scale fraudulent land deals being approved with the blessings of the BJP government with the use of form 1 & 14 to pass them off as title documents for the sale of vast tracts of land to mostly Delhi-based and other buyers seeking a piece of Goa. The Congress leader and co-chairman of the Manifesto Committee fears that a rapidly concretising Pernem taluka will soon turn into an urban landscape while locals already suffering from shock and worry will be the losers. They have little idea of what choices they have and fear their lives turning into a nightmare courtesy all the development from peaceful rural to security-ridden airport city!
NO SOCIAL IMPACT STUDY
WHEN land is being acquired like this for such a mega project usually a social impact study is done first, but in the case of the Mopa Airport development everything to do with the people’s point of view has been hijacked by the powers-that-be — with the singular brutal aim of raising the airport. Many Goans are aware of how the face of Goa will be transformed once its traditional agricultural lands go into the hands of big out-of-state players with little love for the Goa of old. Or, given the priorities of the present BJP government in Goa.
Goans are already being marginalized in their own state courtesy “outsider politics” playing a key role in shaping a Goa which promises to be a concrete tragedy, much like similar tragedies witnessed around the country. Thousands of hectares of tree covered and spring-fed plateau land has been razed for Mopa Airport. Pernem is on its way to turning into a glittering security-protected concrete airport city. Under the circumstances it is anyone’s guess what choice locals will have once they have signed away their land in sale deeds executed along mala fide legal procedures.
Is all this with the blessings of BJP’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in collusion with businessmen from the neighbouring states seeking expansion plans for their business empires in Goa? Never mind that a poor primary infrastructure will likely drive inflation and land prices spiralling up to the sky. There is so much large scale malpractice that the entire issue merits a Judicial Commission, Elvis Gomes summed up.
He likened the land sale transactions going on to that of a “flea market” for the simplicity with which, on the basis of just forms 1 & 14 land can be sold. If most of the land in Pernem is being bought up by big-city business based in Delhi and other mega metros the face of Goa will change dramatically give or take a few years. Mopa Airport is expected to accelerate the development of south Maharashtra adjoining Pernem for political reasons.
There are very real fears that with land going into the hands of companies from outside Goa the very identity of Goa will undergo a transformation at the expense of local people. Especially with no slowing down of migration into Goa from neighbouring Maharashtra, Karnataka, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and now possibly Kolkatta…so many outside Goa dreaming of owning a piece of paradise which is already in its death throes. Ironically!
SUSPECTED CITY LAND DEALS
SOME of the suspected land deals in Pernem taluka which need to reviewed are as follows:
8.16 lakh sq mts by Malaga Realtors, Vasco
4.62 lakh sq mts by JM Township, Mumbai
4.38 lakh sq mts by Christian Farmlands, Bangalore
3.5 lakh sq mts by NE Electronics Ltd, Assam
2.50 lakh sq mts by Leading Hotels, Delhi
2.57 lakh sq mts by Wides Property & Holdings, Panaji
1.13 and 2.44 lakh sq mts by Bayside Realty Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
2.27 and 2.13 lakh sq mts by Enterprise Value Enhancement Pvt Ltd Co, Mumbai
1.19 lakh sq mts by Prasanna Developers
1.16 lakh sq mts by TM Township, Mumbai,
94,000 lakh sq mts by PN Writer & Co, Mumbai.
65,000 lakh sq mts by Riviera Construction, Mapuca
Nearly 5 lakh sq mts by Delta Corporation
NOTE: Comments Elvis Gomes, the government should review the sale deeds of all such land transactions by placing the onus to prove title on the seller and buy, “Form 1 and 14 is not for title. When a suspicion is raised, the government must investigate.” At the moment complaints by the people concerned are not even getting an acknowledgement from the government!