Rajan Savlo Ghate, Goa

Rajan Savlo Ghate is the President of Nationalist Youth Congress, Goa. A number of foreign nationals were buying land in Goa in violation to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. Under the FEMA Act, there were certain guidelines for foreigners to buy land in Goa.

One of the rules was foreigners on tourist visas could not buy property in Goa. These people of non-Indian Origin were buying land to mainly start commercial establishments, violating an RBI guideline, which according to the applicant was also hampering the local culture, people and habits of the state. The foreigners and Non-Indian residents were buying lands at exorbitant prices thus increasing the prices of the land. This also resulted in many people selling lands and also many middle-men/agents tricking people into selling their land illegally.

Therefore, the applicant decided to file several RTIs to know about how many such properties have been bought by foreign nationals in various parts of Goa.

The applicant filed several RTIs in this case. In the 1st RTI, he asked about the number of registered sale deeds of foreign nationals of non-Indian origin in the north Goa district since 1st June, 2000 till date. In the 2nd he asked the same for the South Goa region. In the 3rd he asked the Mamlatdar of Bardez about the total no. of such mutation cases. The 4th one was about the mutated cases of Pernem which he filed with the Mamlatdar there. The 5th he filed with state registrar of Goa asking for details of purchases of all immovable property by such individuals in both north and south Goa.

Simultaneously, he also gave a memorandum to the Registrar to keep a check on this issue and stop illegal selling of land.

He received information including a list of the mutated cases, which was one short of fifty. He was also given a list of the certified cases as also the pending ones. The information reveled that the purchases were mainly for purposes of building resorts. In response to the last RTI, he received lists of all such purchases area-wise, which runs into more than 500 cases.

There was ample media coverage of the issue in the newspapers like Asian Age, Navhind Times, Panji and many more, which highlight the entire sequence of events. These articles highlight the fact that many foreigners and NRIs were purchasing huge tracts of land in Goa illegally in violation of the FEMA rules. The Sub-Registrars were facilitating this by accepting the false affidavit assuring that they have followed the prescribed rules under FEMA. They did not verify the authenticity of it, instead only forwarded the affidavit to the Police after the registration has been done. One particular Russian company, True Axiz Resort Pvt. Ltd, had bought a huge piece of land by tricking the original owners. Ghate, who founded the Goa Bachao Manch for this purpose, later went to the disputed piece of land and plowed it as a symbol of resistance. He later on met several ministers and high officials including the then Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane, Sharad Pawar, Chief Secretary, etc. to upraise them of the issue. This issue was therefore, highlighted in the Goa Legislative Assembly and Parliament as well, he claims. Slowly, as the movement started to gain momentum, the applicant was threatened and even a bribe was offered to him. However, he did not pay heed to it and continued with the protest.

For nearly, one and a half years, Ghate struggled for pushing the Government to act. Once the seriousness of the issue was brought to the front, it started to take its own course of action. Ghate was only instrumental in lighting this fire.

Finally, the then Goa CM Pratapsingh Rane then issued instruction to sub-registrars to stop registering properties to those violating the FEMA. Public notices were issued in this regard by the Revenue Department stating that action would be taken against all those who illegally buy land.

Subsequently as the matter became a hot potato in the Goa Assembly and a State Government Committee was set up for scrutinizing the 483 cases that were identified to be violating the norms. After scrutinizing, the cases were then referred to the RBI and from the RBI to the Enforcement Directorate. This started to yield the desired effect only recently in 2010, with the Enforcement Directorate imposed a fine of Rs 33 lakh on three directors of True Axis Resort and also ordered confiscation of the properties of the company.