BICHOLIM: One hundred and ninety-nine villagers from Mayem village in Bicholim taluka were distributed sanads of their houses on Thursday by Speaker Rajesh Patnekar and Mayem MLA Pravin Zantye. It may be recalled that villagers from Mayem have been fighting for getting ownership of their houses situated in custodian of evacuee property from last several years. Villagers in the past had to seek permission from the landlord for anything they intend to do. They were therefore demanding right of ownership of their houses. Finally, the then chief minister late Manohar Parrikar passed a special law to give right of ownership to the villagers. After enactment of this law, 88 villagers were distributed sanads. However, after the death of former chief minister Parrikar this process was slowed down for nearly two years. Finally, on Thursday, 199 villagers have been distributed sanads. Speaker Rajesh Patnekar who was chief guest for the function, said the efforts taken by Manohar Parrikar to free villagers from slavery of Portuguese have turned fruitful now. He said around 1500 villagers will be distributed sanads step by step in future and State government will be keen to solve this issue as early as possible. He said present Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant is very keen to solve this issue.
Mayem MLA Praveen Zantye said existing BJP government will make the follow up of this issue so that people would get the ownership of their houses as early as possible. Additional Collectors Gopal Parsekar, Dasharath Redkar and R Maneka, deputy collectors Jyotikumari and Sachin Desai, mamlatdar Pravinjay Pandit, former speaker Anant Shet, ZP member Shankar Chodankar and sarpanch Urvi Masurkar were present on th occasione. Mayem Bhuvimochan Nagarik Kruti Samiti (MBNKS) president Kashinath Mayekar and members Sakharam Pednekar, Yeshwant Karbhatkar and Harichandra Chari were felicitated for creating awareness about this issue on the occasion. Meanwhile, Kashinath Mayekar has demanded with the government to distribute class I sanads to people and not class II. While Sakharam Pednekar has requested the government to undertake the process of sanads through Bicholim mamlatdar office instead of collector office at Panaji to facilitate people.