GOAN MUTATIONS-4. By Valmiki Faleiro.

GOAN MUTATIONS-4.

By Valmiki Faleiro.

Mutation, in law, is meant to be a simple process. But, your saga with a mutation application has been neither simple nor short. You’ve crossed the first two major hurdles: of getting your application entered in the Mamlatdar’s office and serving notices on the respondents. Don’t be euphoric about being close to the finishing line! There’s more in store. Enter the Circle Inspector. In babudom, he is one step higher than the Talathi and one rung lower than the Mamlatdar, even if he fancies himself to be more important than Digambar Kamat. You can’t blame the poor chap: his Mamlatdar regards himself as the President of the Republic.

By now, you’ve finished bribing everyone from peon, clerks, Talathi to Mamlatdar –but you haven’t yet “met” the Circle Inspector. Once all Form-X notices are served, and the Talathi finds the time to ‘put up’ your file, he is the bloke who checks your papers. He could come up with “objections” that are limited only by his imagination. Putting civil-law advocates to shame, he could solemnly pronounce that your Sale Deed is“defective.” How does one argue with a man who might have never heard about a Transfer of Property Act and would be as alien to the conventions of conveyance?

Permit me to share my personal experience at the Quepem Mamlatdar’s office. I am not easy with demands for bribe. I was told that sale deeds executed by me conveying title to my clients (on whose behalf I filed the bunch of identical mutation applications) were “defective.” When asked how, he pointed out to the first recital in the deeds, which described the entire property under its two Survey numbers. “How do I know which plot pertains to which Survey number?” he asked, a wee bit triumphantly. I took him to the annexed schedule that fully identified the plot sold to each mutation applicant by its specific survey number. “This must be mentioned in the main deed,” he said. So I took him to the first operative clause of the sale deed, which mentioned the plot’s survey number. He mumbled something under his breath. I smilingly said, “You are well conversant with conveyancing.” He smiled back. Both smiles were as spurious. Mine, because he knew crap about drafting sale deeds. His, for failure to browbeat a bribe from me. After some weeks, I was told that copies of my wife’s Power of Attorney were not attached.

Revenue officials are concerned only with names appearing in Form I &XIV, not with wives. In this case, only my name appeared. My wife was co-Vendor in the deeds by virtue of ‘communion’ of assets of husband and wife under the Portuguese Civil Code. Even if two of my plot purchasers had earlier got their mutations done without attaching copies of my wife’s Power of Attorney, I complied with this legal absurdity.They must have realised I was a hard nut. No further “objections” surfaced. Forget ministers, its pointless asking even senior bureaucrats to rectify the procedural mutation mess. I tried. I wrote to the state’s Revenue Secretary (an IAS officer, no less.) Forget action, there was not even a reply.

(More in the concluding part next Sunday.) Instead of simplifying, methods have been devised to herd people towards Talathis and Mamlatdars. The authority that promulgated the Record of Rights in F. I&XIV, the district collector, himself has held (in a quasi-judicial order) that the value of F. I&XIV is presumptive and not a proof of title. Evidence of ownership lies elsewhere, as in a Sale Deed. Yet,in a recent fad, municipalities and panchayats have begun insisting that the owner of a plot produce the F. I&XIV showing his/her name before applying for construction licence – even when an attested copy of the Sale Deed (based on which F. I &XIV ismutated) is attached. Don’t ask me who frames such new ‘rules’. Only their purpose is clear. (“Zor roddtta pejek,” if you understand the old Konknni adage.) Harass and milk the common man. If Goa and her public treasury are milking cows for politicos, it is the ‘aam aadmi’ for officials down the line. The law, they say, is an ass. A reflection on the guys who make such laws … the same ones you and I elect, election after election. (Only don’t forget that when we compare laws, legislators and donkeys, we’re being patently unfair to donkeys.) The ‘aam aadmi’ has a way to escape bureaucratic mutation harassment. He must“meet” a minister. Only that, unless he is closely related by blood or by politics, he will end up paying more than what he would have paid to all in the Mamlatdar’shierarchy. (To conclude.) (ENDS.)

The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column.

FAKE FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

A Liberation From Lies: By Prabhakar Sinari.

06 November, 2003.

A systematic campaign is underway to distort and rewrite the history of Goa’s freedom movement. The RSS is trying to take belated credit for a struggle in which its role was, at best, marginal. This is being done with the patronage of the BJP-led governments in Delhi and Panaji. This ‘‘spin’’ cannot go unchallenged.

The campaign began in 2001, with the Centre flouting rules to bring 115 RSS men under the Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension scheme. They were said to have liberated Dadra and Nagar Haveli, when historical records show underground groups from Goa and locals did so. Yet Home Minister L.K. Advani and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik presided over a function at Pune on December 10, 2001, where it was projected that the 115 RSS beneficiaries were the only liberators of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The fighters from Goa and Daman who captured larger Portuguese forces were ignored.

The honouring of these RSS workers contradicted the Indian government’s affidavit in the International Court of Justice, the Hague, that no ‘‘Indian nationals’’ were involved in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli operation and that it was entirely an internal uprising against the Portuguese.
As a direct participant, I can say that Goans and Damanians, under the banner of the United Front of Goans, Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD) and Goan People’s Party accomplished the mission.
Dadra was liberated on the night of July 21, 1954, by a group led by Francis Mascarenhas, Woman Sardesai and 10 others (none from the RSS). Thereafter, the process of liberating Nagar Haveli began, under the aegis of the Azad Gomantak Dal. I was part of that team. We attacked the police post and the taluka headquarter on the night of July 28. We had 10 RSS volunteers with us. The AGD had worked out a clear understanding that the volunteers were participating as individuals and not RSS members.

We captured Naroli, Pimparia Post and then Silvassa. We learnt the administrator, Captain Virgilio Fidalgo and Lieutenant Falcao and Chefe Pegao had moved to Khandvel, on the southern side of Nagar Haveli, with a force of 150. While retreating to Khandvel, they were forced to halt at Rakholi for the night of August 2, since the Damanganga river was in spate. When the rains did not subside the next morning, they crossed all the same. The Portuguese set up rearguard defences on the other bank, while we were faced with the flooded Damanganga. I formed a unit of eight Goan volunteers and two from Daman. Early on August 10, with the help of a local ferryman, we crossed the furiously swirling waters, two at a time.

By noon we arrived at the outskirts of Khandvel. Though moving under cover of bushes, we knew we were being monitored. So we were not surprised when a hail of bullets greeted us. One group under the leadership of Prabhakar Vaidya charged the enemy positions on the left flank. I headed for the police post. When I saw Sub-Chefe Pereira firing at us, I took cover. At the appropriate moment, I pounced on him and snatched his stengun. He begged for his life. I stuck the stengun in Pereira’s back and got him to order his soldiers to lay down their arms. It took us two hours to disarm around 80 members of the Portuguese force. Most of them were drunk, demoralised and mortally afraid.

Sub-Chefe Pereira was holding up the rear, while his seniors led by Captain Fidalgo, Lieutenant Falcao and Chefe Pegao were on the run, hoping to sneak into Daman. When they learnt of Khandvel’s fall, they preferred to surrender to Indian authorities. Thus Dadra and Nagar Haveli were liberated.

There was not a single RSS volunteer with the United Front of Goans or the Goan People’s Party. It’s only the AGD that used their services. The number of such RSS volunteers would have been 40-45. Of these about 15, mostly from Talegaon arrived at Silvassa on August 3, 1954, after its liberation. They dragged out the priest of Silvassa church, disgracing the movement.

Morarji Desai, then chief minister of Bombay state, sent John Lobo, then deputy commissioner of police, to Silvassa. On his report, most of the RSS volunteers were removed from Nagar Haveli. Now it’s Goa’s turn to face the RSS spin. It is learnt the Centre has decided to sanction the Samman Pension 4,000 persons from Maharashtra and another 6,000 from other states. The logic: they had offered satyagraha in Goa, 1954-55. The reality is these 10,000 people were never actually able to participate in satyagraha in Goa. A few who could, like N.G. Gore and Shirubhau Limaye, are already recipients of pensions. The bulk of the satyagrahis could not even reach Goa’s borders because of a Bombay government ban.

The Centre can at best give these people a special certificate, not push them into the lifelong Swatantrata Samman Scheme. That would bring a bad name to the entire liberation movement. Some 1,500 local Goan freedom fighters are being equated with 10,000 or even more from outside.

(The author took part in the liberation of Goa. He later joined the IPS)

Courtesy: Mr. Florian Lobo of Goa Su-Raj Party.

AWARD INSTITUTED FOR FEMALE TIATRIST.

PRESS NOTE

Late Mrs Regina Fernandes a Goan from Raia, the wife of late Joao

Agostinho Fernandes known as “Pai Tiatrist “ ( r/o H No 306 Behind Holy

Spirit Institute Modsai Margao in whose name the 1150 a/c indoor stadium

at Ravindra Bhawan at Margao has been named ) was the first woman

to act on Konkani stage on 22/11/1904 in her husband’s tiatr “Bhattkara

de Panzare-I “ in Mumbai at a time when no woman would dare venture

on stage for fear of social stigma then.

To keep her memory alive and to encourage young educated women on

the Konkani tiatr stage, commencing this year 2008 the family of “Pai

Tiatrist” has instituted an award consisting of a momento and cash prize

of Rs.1000/-.

The award will be given to any lady of Goan origin adjudged the best

upcoming actress on Konkani stage, in the age group of 18 to 30 years,

and with minimum educational qualifications of XII in any faculty. The

award will be given only once to such lady.

This time round for 2008 the family has decided to confer the award to

any such lady selected from among the participants in the X annual All

Goa Tiatr Competition cum Mahotsav being held at the Holy Spirit

Grounds from 17th November, 2008 to 22nd November, 2008 from 7.00 p.m.

onwards organized by Vandana Productions Borim in collaboration with

Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi & Directorate of Art & Culture Goa