NT NETWORK
VALPOI
Members of Sattari Nagrik Samitee (SNS) have demanded ‘Class I’ status to the land by referring to the comprehensive judgement and order in two writ petitions by the High Court of Bombay at Goa. They have further demanded formation of special task committee to resolve the Alvara land issue.
Addressing a press conference at Valpoi, the delegation led by Sadanand Kanekar, in the presence of Antonio Pinto, advocate Ganpat Gaonkar, Mustafa Aga and Narhari Haldankar, said that the government should revoke Act no 6 (Goa Land Revenue Code) amended in the year 2007 pertaining to ‘Alvara’ land and refrain from imposing further price of land for declaring it as ‘Class I’ occupancy.
Ganpat Gaonkar disclosed that the Portuguese government, under decree number 3602, dated November 24, 1817, under the scheme of ‘Alvara Aframento’, had given government land to farmers residing in Sattari.
“The farmers had to pay nominal revenue called ‘fore’ to the government every year. If the farmers cultivated the land for 10 consecutive years, the ownership of the land was given to them. But due to lack of knowledge, the farmers could not avail of benefit of this scheme,” he stated.
Further Gaonkar said that, in 2007, the Goa government had passed a law stating the ‘Alvara Aframento’ land was included in the revenue land of the government. Further, farmers who were given aframento land were named as the second party of the said plots. He disclosed that around 3600 cases are of alavara land issue wherein people are facing the problem.
However, members of SNS said that people who have paid the ‘fore’ for 20 years and availed of aforamento should be granted ‘Class I’ status.
“Many of us in Valpoi have already paid taxes levied by Portuguese and now the government has announced that those who want to procure land from government can pay certain amount. This financial burden has no justification now when we had already paid the ‘fore’ and were taking care of the said land for more than 90 years,” said Pinto. He further questioned why the government has not asked those holding ‘Mokaso land’ to pay any amount and why it continues to remain out of the purview of the Land Revenue Code.
Narhari Haldankar said that it was high time the government thought of the Alvara land matter which has hampered development of Valpoi.
“There were only assurances; no government has taken steps to resolve the matter of Alvara land. People are suffering as they are unaware of land revenue code and the technicality therein,” Haldankar added. Mustufa Aga said the government should appoint a special task committee to look into this matter on priority basis as people of Valpoi and Sattari, especially the farmers, are facing a lot of hardships.
