PANAJI
In a significant clean-up of pending legislation, the Goa government on Monday withdrew six Bills on the first day of the Assembly session, with some of the legislation having remained pending for years and others rendered redundant by changes in central laws.
The withdrawals included the Goa Requisition and Acquisition of Property Bill, 2017, which had been pending for nearly nine years. Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate moved a motion seeking withdrawal of the Bill, after which BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral sought to know why the government was withdrawing the legislation after such a long gap.
Monserrate told the House that the Bill had not received the assent of the President of India.
The government also withdrew the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) (Goa Amendment) Bill, 2025. When questioned on the reason for its withdrawal, Monserrate, also holding the Labour and Employment portfolio, said the legislation had “not got the assent from the President”.
The withdrawal also followed the repeal of the parent Central legislation after the Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force, making the proposed Goa amendment redundant.
Another major withdrawal was that of the Factories (Goa Amendment) Bill, 2025, which had proposed changes to working-hour provisions in the State.
The Bill had sought to permit longer working hours and was presented as part of a wider effort to create more employment opportunities for local youth. It had also proposed substantially higher penalties for private companies that failed to notify employment exchanges about vacancies or advertised jobs outside Goa.
Under the proposed amendments, fines that were earlier as low as Rs 500 were to be increased to between Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000.
The government, meanwhile, also withdrew the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (Goa Amendment) Bill, 2024, which sought to empower the government to decide the quantum of compensation payable to victims of crime or their dependants who suffered loss or injury and required rehabilitation.
