In what is seen as an attempt to save its illegal construction from demolition, the Saligao Comunidade has managed to get an order declaring what was an agricultural tenanted land as non-tenanted.
The joint mamlatdar of Bardez allowed the application of Saligao comunidade for negative declaration of Tenancy Rights under section 7 of The Goa Daman & Diu Tenancy Act 1964 and passed an order declaring four members of a family “as not a tenant” of the property bearing Survey no 202/3, admeasuring 2,200 sq metres in Saligao.
The decision was passed ex-parte after the opponents (the tenants) failed to appear for hearings on three different occasions and therefore “abandoned their rights”.
The declaration assumes significance as the Saligao comunidade had constructed an illegal ‘ground plus two’ structure on the same property which is an agricultural tenanted field/land.
The comunidade carried out the construction without obtaining a conversion sanad in violation of the Land Revenue Code, 1968. Also, no permission and necessary approvals were obtained from any of the concerned departments including the Town & Country Planning (TCP) and the local panchayat.
Acting on a complaint from a resident, Eleuterio Fernandes, the deputy director of panchayat after conducting a detailed hearing passed an order in September last year to demolish the illegal construction within a period of three months.
Incidentally, the complainant had also approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa in the matter, and the court had directed the concerned departments to expedite cases pertaining to the illegal construction.
In the meanwhile, the comunidade of Saligao appealed against the demolition order before the Additional Director of Panchayat and got a stay on it. The matter has since been pending for the last nine months.
Interestingly, the Town & Country Planning rejected an application for construction moved by the Saligao comunidade in 2017.
Sensing the “back door” attempts of the comunidade to regularise its illegal construction, the complainant has submitted a fresh objection before the TCP requesting it not to entertain any requests for regularisation or grant approvals to the illegal construction.
“The comunidade of Saligao is doing everything possible to save the illegal construction through the back door and even used political pressure on different authorities not to act against the illegal construction,” Fernandes said.
Attorney of Saligao comunidade, Ashley Delaney admitted that the negative declaration of Tenancy Rights has come as a major reprieve considering the background of the case.
He also said that efforts were being made to verify that comunidade land is not revenue land and therefore the land revenue code does not apply to it.
“The comunidade had constructed the building without the TCP permission on the basis that it is a comunidade land and it was not revenue land. The negative declaration…is a major victory which shows that there is no tenant on the land,” said Delaney, who is part of the new managing committee which has recently taken up the reins of the comunidade.
