Move to ban foreigners buying land in Goa smacks of scandal

Move to ban foreigners buying land in Goa smacks of scandal Is it a pay-up-and-we-register-at-a-price kind of scam?

The rainy season is in full flow in the Indian state of Goa. It's time for many foreigners on long –term visas to retreat back to their native lands to escape the rainy season. Few brave the rainy season and stay back. Many British tourists have fallen in love with Goa and have made the tourist-resort state their second home. But some are compelled to abandon their dream destination in the face of government action on property laws, which threatens to derail the tourism industry in the state.

If my neigbours Chrissie and Mike were fortunate in that they bough property some fifteen years back, many of their fellow countrymen and women are not. A large chunk of the English tourists who bought property in Goa, face the threat of their property, being confiscated for not following the property laws. And to top it up, the state government has put a stop to foreigners registering purchase or sale of property, as a result Registrars are not registering land deals from foreigners.

Of the  438 cases for forwarded to Foreign Exchange Mangement Act (FEMA)  for violations to the Enforcement Directorate are any indication then some people are hell bent on protecting to the big sharks at the cost of the small fish.

Under the FEMA Act of 1999, foreigners cannot buy property as long as they are “resident” in the country for 182 days in the financial year before they buy. Further, foreigners, who come on business visas are entitled to purchase properties in the name of the Indian companies. Such foreigners have to follow the Reserve Bank  of India (RBI) guidelines. Besides, the persons of Indian origin (PIOs) can also buy properties other than agriculture and plantation.

And if the going by newspaper reports in Herald, the Goan newspaper, it seems the elected representatives are fishing in some muddy waters.

But something is amiss in the government plans to take action against the foreign buyers. The government holding back crucial information on large properties buy, involving some 18 Russian companies smacks of sinister design to protect the interest of these Russian land sharks.

"Wonder what the motives of the politicians are. Can we believe they (politicians) care about long term Goa's interest? They just must be having a parallel racket of their own. Some pay-up-and-we-register-at-a-price kind of scam," says Wilson Coutinho a Goan.

"Why have we all been placed in the same boat as the drug dealers, half-naked women and general nuisances in the eyes of Goan people? Most of the people who revisit Goa year after year are like us in the late 50s and above and to assume that we are all drug dealers and money launderers is quite ludicrous. All the problems with property buying cannot be blamed just on the tourists as the foundations for all these developments were laid under the Governments nose without any objection," says a English tourist in a letter to the Editor in Herald one of the Goan English Newspaper.

" We have been visiting Goa for the last five years. We dearly wish to own our property and re-visit Goa year after year, but does anyone really want us here?, he questions.

A Google search for Chrissie and Mike leads ones to Sanvorcotto ward in Cuncolim village in South Goa. If there is any chance that you have never heard of the village Cuncolim in Goa tourism related news, you are right; the village has nothing to do with tourism.

The next question that comes to mind is what drew the nature lovers and Ornithologists to buy a village house in Cuncolim, inaccessible as it is by car. The Google entry by the couple, who conduct guided tours answers the query – they like the quiet and relaxed part of Goa.

Every year during the tourism off season from May to October, they remain away from Goa, handing over the keys of the house to thirty-year-old Cuncolim-born Lengley Tavares who operates a transport business from Calangute beach in North Goa. Yes, the Tavares and Shepherd families are neigbours in this sleepy village for the last fifteen years and living in perfect harmony.

Tavares has been entrusted to take care of the house, which remains locked for lack of occupants. Handing over the keys of the house has had been the routine the couple has been flowing for the last fifteen years, ever since Lengley has been a child.

The sixty-something English couple quietly slipped into the village when no one was unduly concerned about foreigners buying property in Goa. In that way the couple has been lucky that they did not go through the mental agony and sleepless nights that many foreigners are going through for violating Indian property laws.

The house originally belonged to Doctor Antonio Tavares, a local resident who had since settled in Nagpur in Maharshatra and when the doctor put out an advertisement, some twenty years back, many Goan families tuned their back in buying the house, as it was inaccessible by car.

Until the Sheperd came in to become "good shepherds" of the traditional style tiled-roof Goan house buying it for Rs. three lakhs.

The house continues to have no road leading to it, but a pathway allows them to reach their home abode. The couple on their part has made no wholesome changes to the surroundings or to the design of the house.

The pathway continues to be a favourite place for the pigs to their droppings till this date as it has been for the last several decades, but  the Shepherd's Enfield Bullet motorcycle and  the three-wheeler rickshaw tuk-tuk sound is enough hint for neigbours that the couple are back at their home.

Beraldine Tavares their niebgour says: "We have no problems with them. Most of the day time they are away, we do not know where. We have not inquired. We see them leaving the house at 10-11 am and then there is the sound of their vehicle coming in late in the night at 11pm. They play no loud music at their home. They contribute funds to the village chapel and are part of the social gathering of the villagers when invited. They are a model couple, with their dress code confirming to the local culture."

And if the villagers in Sanvorcotto are in the dark where they spend their day, the news is that the couple has another holiday home in Cannagunim, another quieter unspoilt small beach in south Goa close to Betul village. Besides during the day the couple visit either the numerous beaches or conduct their bird seeking expedition.

And Crissie and Mike are not the only responsible tourists who care about nature, when,

Susan Casey from Yorkshire, England  says: " I urge you take action before it is too late. We have to act fast. The very reason that people began to flock to Goa was due its incredible display of natural beauty in all its varied and diverse forms along with the wonderful susegad lifestyle. Once the natural beauty has expired due to degradation caused by the ever increasing demands of the tourism industry the tourists themselves would never return. This may sound over the top and melodramatic."

She then points out the  damage to the environment through irresponsible tourism

"On a biodiversity point species face a massive decline due to the influence of over and irresponsible tourism with its destruction and fragmentation of important habitat sites, excess garbage contaminating ground water and killing marine and terrestrial species and wasteful energy consumption."

And she warns that the future could be bleak with Goa having well exceeded its carrying capacity.

"Goa has well and truly exceeded its carrying capacity and without careful reconsideration of how to build its future the future could look very bleak indeed. It is up to us all to provide safe and protected areas for all species to thrive, the beaches, forests and hills which are now effected were for thousands of years home to other species other than man himself, we should all respect this fact and help in this plight to provide protection at every level."

Goa certainly needs to clear the air, but one thing is certain the amount of uncertainty created in the minds of the small-budget tourists who have regularly visiting Goa.

But will the government sign to the tune of the smaller budget tourists of the big land sharks. That is a question will be best answered by the pie hungry Goan politicians.