Panaji, Oct 7 (IANS) Alleging that a state minister has grabbed prime community land, an activist lawyer here has demanded that the encroached land be restored else he would file a complaint under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In a letter to Goa chief secretary B Vijayan Monday, activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues demanded that community land, allegedly encroached by state Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar, should be reverted back.

In his letter to the top bureaucrat, Rodrigues has alleged that Parulekar had grabbed 559 sq mt of prime land in Porvorim, a suburb of the capital.

Parulekar has denied the allegations calling them "baseless and motivated".

Rodrigues has threatened to file a complaint under the Prevention of Corruption Act, if the process to transfer the land back to the Serula Communidade was not initiated.

According to Rodrigues: "The land has been encroached by Parulekar several years ago. Now, attempts are being made to regularise the encroachment." 

The activist has also named two other officials for allegedly conniving with Parulekar.

The land, valued at about Rs.1 crore, is owned by the Serula Communidade, one of the many pre-Portuguese civil society-run organisations, which for the last many years have owned tracts of land which are either leased or sold for community causes.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has already demanded Parulekar's resignation accusing him of using his ministerial clout to regularise the plot.

"This government promised zero tolerance to corruption, and here we have a minister using government machinery to regularise his encroachment," NCP vice president Trajano D'Mello said.

Parulekar has denied the allegations calling them "baseless and motivated".

"This is an old case. I am following it up for over two decades. All my papers are in order," he said.