MAPUSA
After coming under intense pressure from the Opposition and more importantly the civil society, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on late Tuesday night decided to rename the Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill as Bhumi Adhikarini Bill and invited suggestions to the bill from the public.
He also said the government will consider valid suggestions and may re-introduce the bill in the next assembly session.
“A lot of people’s sentiments are attached to the word ‘bhumiputra’ and therefore we have decided to remove the word from the bill. The government welcomes suggestions to the bill and public can send their suggestions on goaonline.gov.in,” Sawant said, in a recorded video.
He said a lot of people who read the bill have welcomed it but lamented that there were many who have not read the bill and derived conclusions.
He further said that the bill was meant for the blue-blooded Goans and it will benefit mostly Goans.
Sawant said so far the state has the Mundkar Act that gives right to a house but many mundkarial cases were still going on.
He further said the Regularization of Houses Act was passed in 2014 in which some 8000 people applied for regularization and so far only 500 have got benefit.
He said some of these cases were pending due to the TCP amendment and they too will get benefit from the Act.
“The Bhumiputra bill was brought for those people whose houses are in government or communidade land and who could not apply under the Mundkarial Act and the Regularization of Houses Act,” he said.
He said many have been making unnecessary comments without reading the bill.
“A person who stays on lease cannot claim a right through this law. So a person who stays on rent will not benefit. Only the person who has a house number, power and water bills can claim the right as per the Bhumiputra bill,” the CM said.
He also clarified that the bill is to regularize a residential dwelling and not for commercial purpose.
He further said a lot of people were making wild allegations that this bill has been brought for migrants without going through the silent features of the bill.
The CM said before bringing the bill in the assembly the government took a village from Sattari for case study.
“There are 1038 houses in this village out of which only 20 houses have obtained construction license and the remaining 1018 houses have not. I have given only one example. Like this over a lakh of houses have no licences. We can regularize their houses through this bill,” he said.
He said a lot of Goans have built houses on communidade land. The owners will have some receipts paid to the communidade committee.
“In Canancona some 500 houses on communidade land are for demolition and government has no law to stop the demolition. How do we save these houses,” he asked.
He said a real Goan is the one who stays in the village and the villager will have a house number, power and water connection but there will be hardly 20 percent houses with licences.
“Around 50 percent houses in the State do not have names on form 1 and 14 till today. That is why there are many cases over such houses,” he said.
He further disclosed that around 3000 houses in panchayat areas have cases going on and may face the axe and 3000 plus houses in municipalities may also face demolitions as cases against them were also going on at various level.
He also slammed the opposition for politicizing the issue over the bill.
