PANAJI
Despite denials to the media first by the Speaker Rajesh Patnekar and later by the government through Minister for Legislative Affairs, Mauvin Godinho, the controversial Bhumiputra Bill, 2021, has indeed been dispatched to the Raj Bhavan for obtaining the assent of the Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.
“The Bill has been referred to the Hon’ble Governor through law department for his assent and the same is under process,” Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate said in a written reply to an unstarred question tabled by Fatorda legislator Vijai Sardesai.
To further supplementaries by Sardesai on whether the government intends to further amend the bill and seeking details of legal provisions of how to amend the legislation, Monserrate responded saying these issues do not arise in view of it having been sent to the Governor for assent.
The Goan had reported last week that the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill, 2021, passed amid a boycott by an united Opposition on July 29 was published in the Goa gazette for “general information” of the public by Legislature Secretary Namrata Ulman in keeping with the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the Goa Legislative Assembly.”
This and a repeat publication of the legislation once assented to by the Governor are the essential requirements for the bill to become
law.
The legislation proposes a mechanism to give land/dwelling house ‘ownership rights’ to dwellers to the extent of a maximum of 250 square meters and had triggered a huge controversy with fears that the political establishment was playing ‘vote-bank’ politics and favouring the large number of migrants.
Following the controversy, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant blinked and announced that the process of making it a law will be held back and suggestions from the public invited to rectify it.
Following the report in The Goan, Patnekar and Godinho in interactions with the media had claimed that its mere publication in the gazette did not mean it had been sent to the Governor for assent.
Godinho had even gone a step ahead and said that the legislation will be “allowed to lapse”.
Monseratte’s written reply to the Goa legislative assembly on Monday, however, puts the record straight: the controversial legislation has been sent to the Governor for his assent, after all.
