Revenue Minister Atanasio 'Babush' Monserate has introduced the landmark 'The Goa Restriction on Transfer of Agricultural Land Bill' 2023 in the Legislative Assembly which seeks to impose strict restrictions on the transfer of certain agricultural lands and stop non-Goans from purchasing these lands. Well, such a bill was indeed a need of the hour because most Goans over the years have made it a habit to convert their ancestral paddy fields into commercial plots and sell them to non-Goans to allow them to set up their own small tea stalls, restaurants, ice-cream parlours, hardware shops, vegetable shops, chicken/mutton shops, garages, scrap-yards etc illegally in such fields in most parts of Goa. I therefore feel that the government should come out with a bill to severely punish all such Goans who have already sold their fields to outsiders after illegally converting them into plots and also to permanently take over the custody of all such fields turned properties back from all non-Goan land-sharks to save our agricultural lands for our future generations in Goa.
