PANAJI
The government-sponsored The Goa Legislative Diploma No. 2070 dated 15-4-1961 (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to amend the Code of Comunidades and provide legal remedy to grant ownership of land where illegal structures are built was passed by the Goa legislative assembly late on Thursday night amidst a ruckus raised by the Opposition.
The entire seven-member Opposition unitedly opposed the bill and rushed to the well of the House multiple times calling it an avatar of the The Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill of 2021 which the government passed in the House but permitted it to lapse without sending it for the Governor's address after a public backlash.
The ruckus by the Opposition forced Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to adjourn the House for five minutes. When the House reassembled following the adjournment, the Opposition did not relent and continued to raise slogans against the bill.
However despite the din, Tawadkar went through the formality of consideration and passage of the Bill before adjourning the House a second time for five minutes.
The amendment to the Legislative Diploma No 2070 which the House passed provides a quasi-judicial process, presided over by Revenue officials, through which encroachers who built dwelling houses on comunidade land can get ownership of the land on which the structures stand.
However, the quasi-judicial process entirely ignores the comunidades and gives them no say or opportunity in it.
Opposition members Venzy Viegas and Viresh Borkar opposed the bill and termed it as 'Bhumiputra 2.0'
Borkar said, he strongly opposes the Bill while Viegas placed his and the other AAP MLA Cruz Silva's objections to the Bill in writing on the table of the House.
Viegas was joined by Carlos Alvares-Ferreira and Vijai Sardesai in questioning the State's and the government's locus-standi in granting to third parties (encroachers) the land which belongs to comunidades.
"The government only has Tutelage which is supervisory powers over comunidades," Alvares-Ferreira said, adding that it will not pass the test of law ending up becoming a death-knell of the very people who the government intends to help.
Viegas said, comunidades will challenge any grant of land by Deputy Collectors under this law and it will land the encroachers in deeper trouble than what they already face currently.
Sensing the Opposition's mood, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant initially sought to calm tempers. He said the government had no objection to a detailed discussion on the bill before passing it but the Opposition MLAs who by then had already rushed to the well of the House shouting slogans were in no mood to relent.
Eventually after one five-minute adjournment because of the Opposition ruckus, Tawadkar pushed through the process of the bill's consideration and passage amidst the Opposition din when the House reassembled.
