PANAJI
At the backdrop of land grab cases, the Goa government is considering implementing blockchain technology for land registration and to verify property transactions in the State.
The information was provided by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to the State Legislative Assembly, wherein he said that the proposal is under consideration of the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communication.
“Implementation of Blockchain Technology in land registration and related process is under consideration,” Sawant said.
He also said that the government has approved digitization of Notary records and the empanelled agency Info Tech Corporation of Goa Ltd (ITG) has commenced working on the same.
The blockchain is a technology that allows for the tamper-proof and transparent transfer of information in a digital format. It provides time-sequenced and tamper-resistant storage with an audit trail for future verification.
A total of 47 cases are investigated by the Special Investigating Team (SIT- Land Grab) of which 25 FIRs were registered by SIT while the remaining 22 FIRs were transferred from various police stations to SIT. So far, ten cases have been chargesheeted while 32 are still under investigation.
The government had constituted a One-Man Commission to inquire and fix the responsibility in all the cases of land grab involving private land and any other land in the State, and to find out the involvement of government officers and any other public functionaries and private individuals in such land grabbing.
The Chief Minister said that the department of Revenue has enacted ‘The Goa Escheats, Forfeitures and Bona Vacantia Act, 2024’ to curtail land grabbing.
Besides, the legislations like ‘The ‘Goa Land Revenue (Property Register) Rules, 2021’ so that the purchaser can verify the documents thoroughly before buying any land and ‘Goa Restrictions on Transfer of Agricultural Land Rules, 2023’ to protect agricultural land by imposing restrictions on the transfer of agricultural land are in force.
Sawant said that the CCTVs have been installed in all the units as well as Record rooms of Archive Department and the proposal to impart in-service training in Portuguese through Goa University to the Sorters and MTS of Archive department is under consideration.
Of the total six government servants, who were found involved in the crime, three continued to be suspended while one has been reinstated into the service. Two have expired over the period of time, he added.
