PANAJI: Describing the commencement of distribution of provisional Sanad letters to the residents of Mayem as “dawn of a new era for the village,” the government on Monday gave away such letters to 62 families from the village.
The exercise carried out by the North Goa Collectorate under the Goa (Abolition of proprietorships, titles and grants of lands) Act, 2014 saw transfer of the ownership of a part of evacuee property in Mayem from the Custodian to the tenants and mundkars.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who presented these letters at a special function organised at the Institute Menezes Braganza hall in the city, said that whenever the government enacts legislation, rarely it is accompanied by proper thinking over it. “There is a pressing need to consider this aspect, as without proper thinking on the legislation, people fail to enjoy its benefits,” he noted.
Speaking further, Parrikar, during whose tenure the particular Act was enacted, said that the government has eliminated the root cause of the Mayem evacuee property problem that is abolition of proprietorship, titles and grants of land by the Portuguese to some families in Goa. “However, only 18 per cent of the related cases have been cleared till now, which calls for speeding up the process of distribution of the Sanad letters,” he observed, maintaining that by next year, at least 75 per cent to 80 per cent of the Sanad letters need to be handed over to the beneficiaries, and the issue completely settled within next two to two-and-a-half years.
The Defence Minister held the authorities ruling Goa from time to time, responsible for allowing the issue of evacuee property to decay, as they did not try to understand the issue fully. “My government studied the issue with a view to provide a permanent relief to the people of Mayem,” he concluded.
Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, describing the beginning of distribution of Sanad letters as the real liberation of Mayem, 55 years after Goa has been liberated from the Portuguese rule, said that the delay in processing the 1,100-odd applications was due to the fact that the number of claimants of the evacuee property had substantially increased over the years.
“The problem of evacuee property was a complex problem,” D’Souza admitted, stating that the Goan land was in the possession of foreigner, and an effective legislation needed to be enacted. “In fact, implementing the enacted legislations effectively was more important than enacting the legislation itself,” he noted.
North Goa Collector, Agnelo Fernandes, in the welcome address said that the Collectorate is checking the survey numbers of the lands in the village, besides verifying related documents from the inheritors. He also informed that some evacuee property-related cases have been fixed for hearing.
Speaker of the state legislative assembly and Mayem MLA Anant Shet said that the residents of Mayem are now getting the possession of their rightful lands, and hence it is a historic moment for the state.
