United Goans Foundation had collected sufficient documents to prove that there is a massive land scam going on in Panchawadi Village, Ponda. Four tracks of land admeasuring nearly 4lakh sq mt bearing survey number 29/1,130/1,131/1, 132/1 and demarcated as forest has been fraudulently and illegally captured without any authentic ownership document. Documents in possession with UGF clearly show that the persons who claim to be the owners of the land, namely Azgaonkars, have not submitted any documents to prove ownership, yet their name appears on form 1 & 14. UGF has got hold of a search report for the property which claim that the 12lakh sq mt property was in possession of Maria GOnovica Piedade Miranda e Menezes, Carlos Manuel Francisco Navarro de Piedade Menezes, Alberto Niclao Navarro Menezes and Antonio Menezes (of Curtorim Village), who allegedly sold the property to Crisnabai Anandam Shirodkar in 1940 beore Notary Jeronlm Salvador Constantio Socrates Da Costa. She inturn left the properties to her daughter, son-inlaw and his sister, all of whom were non goans at that time, by Public Will dated 13/2/52. The properties were allegedly transferred to their heirs, Sumita, Sanjic, Satish and Sandhya Azgaonkar, via deed of succession date 20/3/1996. However, the mutation files are not available under RTI. UGF claims that the documents mentioned in the search report could be bogus since there is no trace of the documents with any govt authority and that eve in the mutation register it is evident that mutation was done only with the deed of succession dated 15/3/1996 and not any ownership document. UGF claims that the massive land scam is evident not just from the bogus transfers by also from the Cadastral records which clearly show that the property did not belong only to the Menezes family. It also belong to the Communidade of Panchwaddi and had atleast 20 lease holder belonging to the Banguy and Gaocar family. This clearly proves that there has been a massive manipulation of records. UGF further claims that the authorities have turned a blind eye to it. Mahadev Naik had sent an official note informing the former Chief Minister and TCP Mininster , Manohar Parrikar about the illegalities, once on 6/12/13 and then on 28/2/14. UGF questions why did Manohar Parrikar not act against these illegalities? The draft Regional Plan 2021 clearly shows that this area is designated as Private Forest hence any development on this land is illegal. However, when UGF filed a complaint with the TCP, they have attempted to deceive UGF by forwarding the complaint to the Panchayat, asking them to “look into the matter and take necessary action within the rules in force”. UGF demands to know since when did the Panchayat come under the jurisdiction of TCP and also which “rules in force” is the TCP refereeing to. UGF wants to remind the TCP that when they receive a complaint, they are are supposed intimate the complainant and the owner and hold a joint inspection. UGF had also filed complaints with the Dy Conservator of Forest (Ponda), Dy Collector of Ponda Taluka, and the Panchwadi Panchayat, neither of whom have responded or have taken any action to stop the destruction. All these complaints were filed in the last week of July. In the coming weeks, UGF will inquire into the action taken by the authorities with regards to the complaints filed. If the authorities fails to take action, UGF will take the necessary legal and vigilance recourse.
www.facebook.com/unitedgoansfoundation -- *Avinash Tavares* *Phone : 9657210949*