6 weeks after land probe panel formed, no terms of ref yet to make it functional

Panaji: Six weeks after the state appointed retired justice V K Jadhav to head a one-man commission to probe the land grab scam, it is yet to finalise the terms of reference to make the commission functional.
An official said the state is in the final stages of finalising terms. “We will issue the terms of reference by next week, and then the commission will start functioning,” he said. The terms of reference are likely to clearly mention the scope of inquiry and time frame to submit the report, among others, he said. It will also be asked to inquire about loopholes, deficiencies, lacunae and negligence in the administrative and legal systems that led to such large-scale land-grabbing.
The commission will even have to recommend changes to laws, to prevent such land-grabbing in future.
The special investigation team formed by the government has arrested more than 15 people and identified around 100 properties comprising over 1.5 lakh sqm. The arrested not only include fraudsters but also government employees. Earlier, Goa police had said that some accused have named politicians, but declined to identify them.
The SIT has received over 200 petitions in these cases, and they are in the process of verifying the same. In most cases, the real owner of the property has not come forward to claim ownership. The state has also decided to take back land which has no legal heirs.
A senior official said that in most cases, fraudsters identified land, and, in connivance with some government employees of departments connected to land, forged documents and grabbed it. Most land grab cases have been found in Bardez taluka.
Recently, the state government passed a bill to revert land grabbed by fraudsters to its original owners.