MUTATION – A GOVERNMENTS TOOL TO HARASS AAM ADMI SPECIALLY GOANS by Praxy Fernandes, Sanquelim

It is becoming evidently clear that we original Goans have lost our rights to Non-Goans and are being treated as second class citizens in our own land. Today I am highlighting just one form of hardship faced by aam admi at the hands of our government staff, specially if he is a Goan.

My neighbour had submitted a mutation request in the 1st week of May 2009 to the office of the Talathi of Raia Panchayat to include his name in Form I & XIV as per the judgement pronounced by the Hon’ble Court. Now as per mutation procedure the Talathi has to send a notice to the person(s) whose name already exists in Form I & XIV. But just to issue notice to the one and only concerned person, my neighbour was forced to make 5 trips to the Panchayat office. And inspite of extracting Rs 1500/- from my neighbour, the Talathi insisted that he be paid more. However at my intervention the notice dated 4th june 2009 was finally issued after more than a month. While my neighbour himself sent the notice to the concerned by registered A/D post on 10th June 2009, the Talathi subsequently and till date has denied receiving back the acknowledgement card. After one month my neighbour was informed by the talathi that the mutation files have been transferred to the Talathi of Mutaion in Salcete Mamlatdar’s Office at Margao.

The Talathi in Mamlatdar’s office admitted having received the file and on my 2nd vist asked me to complain to the Postmaster of Raia as per the prescribed form he gave me. He also asked me to resend the notice by registered AD and both these directives were complied with by my neighbour on 16th July 2009. After 4 days the Talathi confirmed having received the duly acknowledged card. 12 days after he called me on 3rd August 2009 I was informed by the Talathi that my file has been put to the Circle Inspector for verification which as per record showed the file was sent to the Circle Inspector only 5th August. But after a couple of visits I was told that the file is still pending with the Talathi as all Circle Inspectors’ were loaded with work. Finally on 21st August the file was handed over in my presence to the Circle Inspector who promised me that he would conduct the verification and return the file back to the Talathi within 2 to 3 days for further needful. But when I visited the office again on 7th September the file went missing and neither the Talathi nor the Circle Inspector could tell me the status of the Mutation request.

Realising that I am being taken for a ride (a modest way to express the corrupt practices of our aam admi government staff) I have sent a RTI application to the Mamlatdar to know the fate of the mutation request, for which I will have to wait for the 30 days reply period. These are the sufferings created by the government during the time of survey number allocation way back in the 7o’s and 80’s.