The Change of a name is the right of all the citizens of India, and the same has been guaranteed by the constitution to every Indian citizen. The scope of change of his or her name depends on approval from the office of the Sub-Registrar but Goa’s changing of the name has become a business and many outsiders have settled down in Goa by adopting a Goan surname. The purpose of adopting a Goan name could be for various reasons, it can be for getting into the electoral list, or applying for the Portuguese passport or even transferring some unclaimed properties in the state. Recently Goan residents have taken cognizance of the same and decided to oppose the change of name by outsiders in Goa.
According to the sources in one such attempt of adopting a Goan name by the outsider was foiled by the group of local youth at the Sub-Registrar’s office in Mapusa. An ‘outsider’s’ attempt to adopt a Goan name suffered a setback, after some youth from the State challenged his application for change in name before the Bardez sub-registrar and the efforts of the local youth paid off when the Migrant withdrew his application for the change in name days before the sub-registrar could issue an order on the objections raised by the youth.
The story is like this, according to the reports, three months ago one Manjunath Lamani had approached the sub-registrar in Mapusa with an application to change his surname name from Manjunath Lamani to Manjunath Naik, but as per the procedure, the applicant needs to release the advertisement in the newspaper announcing the change in name and purpose behind it.
After reading the advertisement of the change in name in a local newspaper a local youth approached the office of the Bardez sub-registrar and officially registered their objections against the move.
After conducting four hearings in the matter, the sub-registrar reserved his order in the case on November 4. Surprisingly, before the sub-registrar could issue his order, the applicant, Manjunath Lamani withdrew his application for change in name.
The development has given some hope to the Goan youth who have now decided to file similar objections against the practice of change in names before all the 12 sub-registrars in the State.
Meanwhile. the Sub-Registrar, Tushan Kunkolienkar informed the Goan youth that since the applicant had withdrawn his application he was going to dismiss the case. However, Adv Ganesh Gaonkar, representing the youth appealed that the case be rejected due to objections raised by the youth.
“This must be for the first time that such a case is being argued in the State. The applicant has withdrawn his application for change in name but we are yet to pass the final order in the case,” Kunkolienkar said.
In the meantime, the youth of the State have appealed to Goans to remain vigilant and raise objections against those who are threat to Goem, Goenkar and Goemkarponn.
“Alert youth should keep an eye on such unscrupulous people who illegally apply for a change in name. Their attempt to illegally obtain ration, election and Aadhaar cards should also be stopped. We should file an objection before the authorities against such malpractice,” said Deepesh Naik, who was part of the youth who objected to the change in name claim.
“These people change their names in order to obtain government facilities and schemes and to acquire land in the State,” said Praveen Asolkar, while appealing to the youth to come forward to identify such people.
Source: The Goan
