Why land compensation in Goa must be prompt for infra development

V M Prabhudesai has been on both sides of the fence, and neither has been easy. The state has acquired his and his extended family’s land in Pernem for almost a dozen projects. Some of the projects include the Konkan railways, Tillari canals, Tillari staff quarters, Housing Board, Sports City, Ayush hospital, Manohar International Airport link road, and the GCA stadium. 106378714Before he retired, he served as the director of sports and youth affairs. Under his tenure, the government has taken over land in Pernem and elsewhere for different infrastructure projects like the stadium at Navelim. 106378815As a government official, he saw locals fight and get compensation equal to the market price for their land, as a landowner in Pernem he found himself parting with his land for government projects for paltry sums, some of which are yet to be paid. 106378875His biggest predicament came when he was still working as a government official, and land was acquired for the Sports City at Dhargal. 106378896“I was in the directorate of sports and my kith and kin were quite perturbed. Now, the Goa Cricket Association stadium will come up, earlier Ayush hospital and Sports City projects were planned on our land, and a dozen such projects, but land losers are the biggest victims, who are neither paid nor given any other benefits, like government jobs or other facilities,” said Prabhudesai. 106378912Mopa locals have long maintained that they were promised jobs, besides compensation, for handing over their land for the new airport. However, they alleged that the jobs that came their way were of a menial nature. 106378934“I got the blame (from family members) when the Sports City was planned. I must blame the deputy collector. The government officials dealing with such matters are insensitive. When they acquired, for instance, Sachin’s land, they acquired it in his name, but when it came to paying compensation to Sachin they asked him to get this paper and that paper. When they acquired the land, whose land did they acquire then?” asked Prabhudesai. 106379066The site for the permanent campus for IIT-Goa had to be shifted time and again due to opposition to the land acquisition from locals. The villagers of Gulem-Melaulim in Sattari had refused to part with their land based on government promises, which, they said, will not be honoured once the land is acquired. 106379109At present, locals in Bhoma, too, have refused to believe the state’s presentation of alignment for the proposed highway widening. Even though the PWD has stated that no temples and houses will be lost to the project, locals said they have no confidence in the government’s assurances.“More than a decade later, payments are still pending for some of the projects. It is a nasty approach by government officials to take. It is daylight robbery,” Prabhudesai said.Having been in the shoes of a government official himself, Prabhudesai said, if he had been one of the officials dealing with such a land compensation matter, “I would have collected evidence myself of land ownership beforehand”.But does this mean Goa will never see an ideal scenario wherein locals hand over their land and are paid compensation on time?“Now it may happen because as per the new laws, three times the market value is paid for rural areas and two times in the case of urban areas when land is acquired by the government.In 2013, when land was being acquired for the stadium in Navelim, locals first went to court. Later, then-chief minister Manohar Parrikar reduced the area to be acquired from 53,000 sqm to 13,000 sqm. But when the government started paying the market rate of Rs 10,000 per sqm and provided settlements, the locals themselves came forward and said the remaining 40,000 sqm too should be acquired!”