PANAJI
The recently concluded Goa Legislative Assembly session saw the BJP-led government taking major decisions to regularise unauthorised dwellings located on government and comunidade land.
Aimed at providing relief to thousands of residents facing demolition threats following High Court directives, the move seeks to safeguard long-time occupants by offering them legal protection. However, the opposition parties feel that the legislation will benefit Non-Goans rather than ‘Niz Goemkar’.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, on the other hand, assured that only genuine cases will be considered under a transparent process, while misuse and large-scale encroachments will not be entertained.
The House passed the Goa Legislative Diploma No. 2070 dated April 15, 1961 (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to regularise unauthorised dwellings on comunidade land and the Goa Land Revenue Code (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aimed at providing relief to thousands of families living on government land, including the encroachers of alvara, mokaso, and revenue land.
The House also passed the Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which provides a fresh window of two years for individuals to apply to regularise illegal homes and structures in villages and in towns. The structures or homes will be regularised as long as they are within a limit of 500 sqm in villages and 600 sqm in towns or in the capital city.
The bills — amendments to the Goa Land Revenue Code, 1968, and Goa Legislative Diploma — have set February 28, 2014, as a cut-off date for regularising the structures. Eligible applicants can receive up to 400 sqm of government land and up to 300 sqm on comunidade land, comprising the plinth area of their dwelling house, and up to two metres of adjoining area on all sides from the outer walls.
While it was smooth sailing for legislation pertaining to government land structures, the comunidade bill was vociferously opposed by the opposition benches, according to whom it was nothing but a reintroduction of the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill in a new garb by the BJP. They even held a sit-in protest outside the Goa Legislative Assembly after the session was over late Thursday night.
Sawant said that the legislation will benefit 35,000 houses, of which 30,000 structures belong to Goans. He said houses that completed 15 years as of February 28, 2014, will be eligible for regularisation only after receiving consent from the respective comunidade bodies and paying fines, and hence there is no question of allowing houses of Non-Goans to be regularised.
Oppn criticism
Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate also justified that the amendment aims to provide “legal security” to “landless persons” who built houses on land owned by a comunidade.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, on the other hand, tagged the Bill as an “anti-Goan law”. “This BJP govt has brought an anti-Goan bill. This is a very sensitive issue. This is nothing but Bhumiputra Bill 0.2 with a different cover,” he alleged.
He questioned the hurriedness in passing the Bill by ignoring the opposition’s voices. “We don’t know why they have to pass it in such a hurried manner without respecting the opposition. This is not in the interest of Goans but basically to help outsiders,” he charged.
Monserrate said that the main objective of the amendment is also to protect comunidade lands from further encroachment and to enable the comunidades to reclaim land that was encroached upon.
RGP MLA Viresh Borkar said the regularisation will benefit migrant workers who have encroached on the comunidade land. He said that the bill should have specified that only landless persons of Goan origin would be able to apply for the regularisation of houses.
