Shantaram To Lobby For Land Sale Restriction

Goa’s lone Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik while commencing his second term, has vowed to lobby for a legislation that will enable the State to regulate sale of land.

While pointing out that he had already submitted a memorandum to this effect during his last tenure, he said during the present sting he will prevail upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the need of such a legislation to protect land in the land starved State of Goa.
He said the parliament will have to pass a special provision under Article 371 of the Indian Constitution to enable Goa to regulate land transactions in public interest and added that this was required in the wake of fears of land sharks gobbling up the scarce resource of the State.

He also promised to fight for a separate cadre for the State of Goa which is currently using officers of AGMU cadre. Naik said that officers under the AGMU cadre look at Goa as a cosmetic posting and do not really work for the benefit of the State as they have no love or attachment to the land.