the goan I network
PANAJI
Some 7400 plus applicants have filed their pleas before the various mamlatdars and deputy collectors seeking to regularise their ‘unauthorized’ residential or commercial structures under a 2016 specific purpose legislation.
The law ‘Goa Regularization of Structures in Private Property Act, 2016’ allows regularisation of structures in own private property and was enacted in the Goa Legislative Assembly by the then Laxmikant Parsekar government. It allows regularisation of residential or commercial constructions built in one’s own property without securing the requisite permissions but do not grossly violate other building laws.
Structures built by co-owners in joint properties are also covered under the legislation but require the written consent of the other owners for regularisation. The law also covers dwelling houses built by mundkars.
Only structures built before February 28, 2014 are eligible and the first cut-off date to file applications had expired in September this year. However the State government by a notification extended it by two months which expired in November-end.
Illegal constructions in protected forests, wildlife sanctuaries, no development zones, open spaces, public land, eco-sensitive zones, coastal
regulation zones, and khazan lands, however, do not come under the ambit of the legislation even if built in own private holdings.
“There are around 3,200 from North Goa and 4,200 applications from South Goa”, Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte disclosed.
The government has directed Deputy Collectors and Mamlatdars to scrutinize these applications speedily and has fixed a target of completing documentary formalities to regularise up to 300 structures per month.
Deputy Collectors and Mamlatdars have already undergone training on procedures to be followed to regularise these structures, a top government official said.
Each applicant has paid Rs 10,000 with their application and the government has netted around Rs 74 lakhs in its kitty.
