1 February pages_Layout 1 1/31/2015 11:06 PM Page 1 Panjim | SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 | Fighting to plan Calangute and Candolim Reviving the Oratorian order PAGE II PAGE III Adulteration poisoning the common people PAGE IV ZIMBABWE BY THE SEA Vincent Braganza ThE horror sTorIEs of BrITIsh ExpaTs who havE InvEsTED In propErTy In Goa anD now rEaLIsE ThaT many of ThEm Do noT aCTuaLLy own ThEm anD havE BEEn DupED has EarnED Goa a nEw namE ‘ZImBaBwE By ThE sEa”, EquaTInG our LanD wITh ThE LawLEssnEss of ThE afrICan naTIon. as horror sTorIEs mounT, hEraLD rEvIEw Looks aT ThE naTurE of ThEsE ExCEssEs anD why IT has BEComE a maTTEr GravE EnouGh To makE IT To ThE BrITIsh parLIamEnT I n the middle of the night, there is a knock on the door. Two men enter the home of a British lady, threaten her at knife point and ask her to sign away the property she thought she had “bought” back to the builder with whom she signed the agreement to sell. Another couple who were told by their neighbours and the local lawyer in 2004 that they could trust their money with the builder who would use their deposit to further build the property and then ultimately get it registered, were left asking the same builder in 2011 when they could have their flat registered. By this time they had already received an investigation notice questioning the legitimacy of their purchase and their stay in India. By this time they had decided to sell their flat and finally leave the country. They even had a buyer. Just when they thought that they could exit and did a quick check with the registrar, they were told that the flat could not be sold because it was under investigation and wasn’t registered in the first place. The builder then made an offer. He would pay them the principal sum for the apartment they bought seven years ago with no interest. This is a story that is being played out across Goa with the victims mainly being British. While there is voluble discussion and debate in social media groups whether sympathy for them is misplaced because they did not quite do checks about rules before investing, those in the real estate, property business as well lawyers, are clear that a lobby of builders, property agents and lawyers, cashed in on the boom of people from the West wanting to retire in Goa. The situation is now turning ugly, because they need to cash in on the high prices people from Delhi and other metros are willing to pay and are therefore “clearing out” foreigners whose paperwork is not perfect -thanks again to the same lawyers themselves. It is exactly this situation which found an echo in the British Parliament last week. British MP Tim Loughton speaking in Westminster last Tuesday said “Hundreds of British subjects have been prevented from registering their properties in Goa, having previously fulfilled the requisite legal processes, primarily because of restrictions on visas. In some cases, that has led to criminality and harm towards foreigners when they have tried to obtain their properties causing loss of investment. Some cases have been involved in extreme violence. Other people included those who came together to invest in Indian tourism and who have been prevented from trading due to altered interpretations of the law, and in tandem prevented from registering their properties. Huge stress has been caused to people who legitimately went out to invest in businesses in Goa. In most cases, they are not wealthy but invested their life’s savings. We seem to have the Goan equivalent of the mafia”. Bryan Smith, who is working with an informal group of British expats with such problems is very alarmed. In a conversation with Herald in a café in North Goa he said, “ None of you know what really is going on. It’s a mafia all right. They are elderly people out there and they are very very scared. People are falling sick, some are suicidal and one suicide which has happened is, we are sure, a direct result of such stress. Some really do not have any money left”. He went on to add, “Do you know what Goa is referred to by a majority of those who are suffering and those who have friends and relatives back home who know what’s going on? Goa is called “Zimbabwe by the sea”. He referred to the absolute lawlessness in that nation and compared Goa to the ills of Zimbabwe”. He also spoke about “threatening conduct” on the part of officials and “a culture of enormous fear.” He however added that over the last two years, the only area where there has been some hope is the Enforcement Directorate. Herald understands that they are contrary and divided views on this and will hold final judgment. But it is clear that there were indeed many whose cases have been cleared and feel that the current Enforcement Directorate team has at least helped clear cases under investigation more sympathetically. One elderly lady named Margaret said, “When I was first called by the ED six years ago, I cried because my documents were just discarded and I wasn’t told what more they wanted. My taxi driver saw me crying and went back to the ED office and asked “What did you do to make mamma cry”. She however said that her case is now clear and she is ready to sell her property and move back to England. It is clear that while earlier cases under ED investigation are being handled, the fear point lies with builders, agents and lawyers who are using the plain agreement to sell to force properties to be given back to them. And this is done through coercion first and violence later. And the real horror stories haven’t been told yet. Review Bureau Visa uncertainty and ED scrutiny pre 2010 made the Goa dream a nightmare for Brits Enforcement Directorate now has ﬁrm mandate to be humane and practical, 187 of 400 cases remain under investigation with only 44 convictions S itting in a café on the busy thoroughfare of Candolim, on which men and women from several nationalities move, little does one realise that many are carrying excess baggage, which is far different from the kind that you pay for at airports, while checking in. Over the years many have realized that the real baggage has been acquired much after they arrived in Goa and settled down to a life of locals, with more friends and fresh memories than they have way back home. Home for most was England. Their new home, for most, is Goa. But it’s a home they have to leave every 182 days, the time they are allowed to spend in the country at a stretch. These are people who have lived for 12 years or even more in India, have set up business establishments, run homes or just live here. As we write this, we learn that one British couple, who run a resort in Canacona district, will be going to Kathmandu, later this month to “have lunch” and return the same day to fulfill the clause of exiting India once in 182 days. Another elderly gent, frail in health says 50 percent of his annual expenditure is on travelling to the UK for two weeks, staying in a hotel, because his life is only in India, is just to get his visa renewed. The uncertainty over the status of their visas was one of the reasons which triggered questions regarding the validity of their businesses. Senior lawyer Rajnish Sharma, who is dealing with several cases of foreigners having property in Goa says, “The length of the Visa cannot determine if the person is a resident or not. As long they have registered a company in Goa and paying taxes, that is enough to establish residency. FEMA does not differentiate between a foreigner and an Indian. It does between a resident and a non-resident.” In the early 2000s, it seemed that the laws were simple and Members of the British Business Group Goa meeting with (center) British Secretary were interpreted simply. That was the time more and more British of State of Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable in October last year nationals arrived in Goa either to set up businesses or retire. According to senior police intelligence officials, agencies like the Enforcement Directorate swung into action after, the Russians came to Goa and started buying land. That was time when there were large scale complaints of literal land grabbing. The immediate scrutiny that followed affected everyone. It is assumed that over 400 such inquires which were done, the majority of them were British, because simply put, their numbers were higher than Russians. There were essentially two grounds on which the scrutiny happened --a) Whether the business were set up according to all FEMA rules; b) whether the land on which their establishments were set up was no agricultural and c) whether the nature of the businesses they declared were really being carried out. An official of the enforcement directorate said that many of these notices were sent in the period between 2007 and 2011. “Most properties had a built up area and a large open land. Often the open space was seen as agricultural land and came under the ambit of investigation”. The Joint Director of the Enforcement Directorate office in Goa told Herald, “There were 400 cases under investigation to begin with. This has been brought down to 187 cases, of which confiscation orders have been given in just 44 cases. We hope to bring down the cases under investigation to 100, by the end of the year” Words which will hopefully bring relief to those who call Goa,home. Review Bureau SETTLED: All lands cannot be presumed to be agricultural T he genesis of the plethora of notices received by foreigners from the Enforcement Directorate, is over the land they bought or the properties they purchased from existing owners, which are still classified as agricultural land. The presumption has always been that lands were presumed to be agricultural unless classified otherwise. The case of State of Goa & others Vs Zarina Abdulai Karmali and others, the High Court ruled that Deputy Collector and others who passed orders for ‘illegally” using agricultural land for non agricultural purpose, had done so on “wrong presumption”. “There is no presumption in law that all lands are agricultural lands unless they are classified as "non-agricultural". There is also no presumption that each and every land found within municipal limits of city would indicate that the land is non agricultural. AIR 1972 SC 2027 referred to on facts held both authorities proceeded on wrong presumption. Orders quashed and matter remanded to Deputy Collector. The Deputy Collector while passing the order dated 1810-1988 proceeded on the presumption that all lands are agricultural lands, unless they are classified as 'non-agricultural' by order of Government or converted for non-agricultural purpose with the permission of the competent authority, whereas the Administrative Tribunal proceeded on the presumption that the Land Revenue Code itself contains different provisions in respect of different types of lands and, therefore, accepted the argument of the respondents that a land once found located within the Municipal limits that itself would be enough to indicate the same to be nonagricultural land. The Court crucially ruled neither the Land Revenue Code nor any other law presupposes that all lands are agricultural lands. So also, no law supports the presumption that the moment the land is found located in the Municipal limits of the city, the same has necessarily to be a non agricultural land. Both the authorities having proceeded on wrong presumptions, have acted with material irregularity in exercise of their jurisdiction while dealing with the matter in hand. In fact, whether a particular land is an agricultural land or not or whether it is non-agricultural land or not would depend on the factual situation in each case. It will depend on the evidence regarding nature of land to be placed before the authority competent to decide the said issue. Review Bureau The matrix of classification * Land revenue code does not pre suppose all lands are agricultural * It also does not pre suppose that all lands within municipal limits are not agricultural * Classiﬁcation of land as agricultural or non agricultural to depend on evidence provided before competent authority