The title of this post might shock you but it is the fact and brings out the dark side of the land grabbing cases going on in the state of Goa in the name of transfers. Since 2014, the Serula Communidade Land allotment, have been attracting attention for the wrong reasons, all due to the illegalities found and with even the former minister embroiled in the controversy.
The illegalities were conveniently kept under the lid, but when a man dies, for the past 12 years comes “back to life”, to transfer Serula Communidade land in his name, blew the cover on the illegalities going on there. Below are the full details.
The matter relates to two mutation cases bearing case no 62087 and 64896 of Socorro village.
These mutation cases were carried out by former joint mamlatdar Ranjeet Salgaonkar, who is currently under suspension with regards to his role in some other mutation cases of a similar nature.
The above-mentioned land belongs to the Communidade of Serula and admeasures 7975 sq mts.
It is important to note that the Revenue Department has put a restriction on the transfer/mutation of Cummunidade land vide circular no 17/24/2008 RD (3919) dated 10/07/2009. As per the said circular, prior permission is required to be obtained if the name of the Communidade is to be deleted.
However, these guidelines stated in the above circular were bypassed while dealing with the above mutation nos.
The applicant in case no 62087, one Arjun Vazarkar has quoted Communidade file no 205/1963, which is a file moved soon after liberation.
Although certain documentation requires to be processed on stamp paper and usage of revenue stamps, it is obvious that adhesive stamps used on the applications are Portuguese government stamps, which were not in use at that time.
The applicant is originally shown as Arjuna Mahadeva Naique Ozorcar, resident of Socorro, married, and the area of the land on July 18, 1963, is recorded as 7975 sq mts at the time when there were no Form I & XIV existing.
Interestingly, the Form I & XIV bearing No 404/1 of village Socorro, which was made many years later has the same area recorded on it.
The signature on the application dated 18/02/1963 of Arjuna Mahadeva Naique Ozorcar who is supposed to be the same person who applied for mutation vide application dated 25/10/2017 has a completely different signature and the name used on the application is Arjuna Vazarkar. This point is extremely important and raises a lot of questions.
It is pertinent to note that, the definitive possession is supposed to be given to Arjuna Mahadeva Naique Ozarkar in the year 1969; however, the stamp used is of pre-liberation time and shows the logo of India Portuguesa, which is not possible for documents done in 1969.
Moreover, the date and month have been mysteriously omitted on the record of proceedings of definitive possession and further due to some strange reasons, does not even have any signs of the administrator and so-called Grantee of Communidade land.
As per inventory proceedings, Arjuna Naique Ozarcar is supposed to have expired on 17/10/2005.
Therefore, how could late Arjuna apply for mutation of Communidade land vide application dated 25/10/2017?
The area of the land involving in this one case is 7975 sq meters and there are plenty of other such cases. This story reveals that there is an organized crime involving Communidade officials to defraud the Communidade of its prime land.
After the mutation was done of Survey Form I & XIV No. 4040/1 of village Socorro under mutation no 62087 by deleting name of Comunidade and adding the name of Arjuna Mahadeva Naique Ozorcar; thereafter vide application dated 18/06/2018 further mutation was done under case no 64896 using the inventory order passed in Case no 496/2017/D, which shows that the concerned Arjuna could not have been living in 2017 he having expired on 17/10/2017.
Source: O Heraldo
Image Credit: Joe Goa UK
