PANAJI
The State government is all set to amend the Goa Land Revenue Code to give permanent rights to at least 7,871 Alvara land lease holders of a whopping 16,616.84 hectares of land and is expected to issue sanads after being asked to pay the market price of their holding.
According to sources, the draft of the bill is ready and after it is finalised and approved by Cabinet, it is likely to be tabled in the coming Assembly session.
In 2007, the government had amended the Goa Land Revenue Code 1968 to regularise the over 16 crore square meters of Alvara properties under decree number 3602, which were leased by the Portuguese regime in 1917 to the thousands of Goan families. Incidentally, the leases of Alvara land have now completed 100 years.
With the new amendment, the government is expected to make a provision to give rights of the land to the respective lease holders. As per the land data submitted by Directorate of Settlement and Land Records (DSLR) to the Controller General of Accounts a year back, there were around 7,871 leases in 12 taluka involving 16,616.84 hectares.
Sources from DSLR disclosed that leases granted under the 3602 Decree are more than 7,871 with some records not traceable. Sattari has the highest number of leases with 3,080 leases and 7,107.141 hectares of land.
Meanwhile, another key amendment is also likely to be tabled clearing the way for regularising encroachment on government land after levying necessary penalties and other fees. However, there is no clarity if commercial enroachments will also be a part of the regularisation plan.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had told the legislative assembly in 2013 that government will move to regularise unauthorised structures on government land.
The government had also indicated its intentions to regularise unauthorised structures on private land. However, the government realised that it needed to amend the land revenue code, in order to go ahead with moves to regularise unauthorised structures on government land.
