Comunidades in crisis (Edit-Herald)

09/12/2013 The in-principle Cabinet approval for amending the Code of Comunidades for appointing an officer on special duty to oversee and monitor the affairs of the Comunidades under the excuse of fraudulent functioning of the Serula Comunidade, is completely in breach of the contract of guardianship under Art 5 of the Code of Comunidades and Part III of the Preamble. It is in fact an admission of government failure in fulfilling its guardianship and contractual obligations. The comunidades are clearly private communitarian bodies –and their lands are perfect property—which are not constituted under any government legislation such as panchayats or municipalities and hence are not subjects of the government. Therefore legal experts view the intention to appoint an OSD as a complete irregularity with malafide intentions to interfere in the functioning of the sovereign bodies of first peoples that pre-date the State. The comunidades are merely under the administrative tutelage of the State according to the rules contained in the code and the state has to act as a guardian and work according to the practices and usages of the comunidades and not introduce laws which are alien to it. Firstly, all appointment to comunidades are to be made by following the qualifications and in a manner prescribed by the code, by the Governor—not the government. However, various governments have made illegal appointments through the collector who has no authority to interfere in comunidade functioning, legal experts contend. In case of any irregularities –financial or otherwise, it is the administrator who has to impose fines, do recovery or evict illegal occupants of comunidades property under Art 19 of the Code. There is no provision in the Code of Comunidades for appointment of an OSD. The accounts of the comunidades are to be audited by the administrative tribunal annually. Under the contractual obligations the government has to appoint staff to the AT, to the administrator of comunidades for conducting audit and staff to assist the escrivao. No such audits in the comunidades have been carried out for nearly 35 years, because the government failed to appoint auditors. ­Most of the previous Revenue Ministers and some MLAs have pushed for regularisation of illegal settlements of migrants on comunidade land, and comunidade members themselves have appropriated lands through devious means, trumping selfish personal interests over the interest of the community which was responsible for cultivating these lands, managing the village agrarian economy and wellbeing of the Goan heritage. All the powers purported to be given to the OSD rest with the administrator and s/he is totally empowered to inquire and lodge complaints, and even take the help of the police. Under no circumstances can the OSD take over the powers of the managing committee and if the committee indulges in irregularities, the administrator can take whatever actions is needed. It is true that administrators too have been used by politicians to get comunidade land for themselves and their kin. Therefore the irregularities argument cannot be used to justify government violation of contractual obligations which will finish the comunidades. The much maligned Portuguese administration had in its Legislative Diploma no 2070 dated 15th April 1961, admitted the various modifications and alterations had given birth to chaos in the comunidades. It had also admitted that the solutions adopted, meant the application of new principles which were entirely different, if not contrary to the spirit of the Code of 1933. The question is will this government have the grace to restrict itself to guardianship and fulfill its contractual obligations or will it finish the sacred institutions that have been Goa’s proud heritage. http://heraldgoa.in/newscategory/Edit/15