Goa s Mokasodari system
The mokasodari system has its origin in pre-liberation Goa when mokasodars used to collect revenue from the villagers. Says Amrut Kasar, land rights expert, a mokasodar was not just a revenue collectors, he enjoyed a high social and political status in the village. The Portuguese colonial rulers allowed the mokasodar's permanent land rights.
But there is no legal clarity over these rights because the original residents of the villages, the goankars, also claim ownership over the land they have been tilling and living on for centuries now.
Prithviraj Rane's family is a mokasodar and villagers claim they have been suffered at the hands of landlords like him. "Though Goa has been liberated, we have no rights over the land where our forefathers have lived. We do not know who gave land entitlements to mokasodars and have been fighting against mokasodari system for the last many years. I have raised my voice against the mokasoda rs on many occasions and have been at the receiving end of their violence on quite a few times. We have even made several representations to the chief minister of Goa. But the government has taken no action. And in fact, the present chief minister is a mokasodar himself and "owns' land in Sattari,' says Kanta Gaonkar, a resident of Valpoi. In the past, efforts have been made to abolish mokasodar i system through Abolition of Village Propriety Act. This Act was enforced in Daman in 1962 and in Diu in 1971, these were a part of Goa union territory till 1987. But the Act has not been enforced in Goa.