The Goa Government launched the "Mhaje Ghar Yojana" on Oct 4. Under this scheme all unauthorised and illegal houses built on comunidade and government land are proposed to be regularised. The comunidades in Goa are private entities and legal owners of their land. The government has no power to regularise illegal houses and structures built on private land by land grabbers. When a landless member of the Comunidade applies for a piece of Comunidade land he has to satisfy a number of eligibility conditions and get possession of the land after complying with a lengthy procedure of getting approvals of several authorities as per the Code of Comunidades. Needless to say he has to pay lakhs of rupees towards official fees to the government and panchayat for the house and "remissao de foro" to the Comunidade. The Goa Government has now decided to help the land grabbers who have grabbed private and Comunidade land and built houses and structures on it illegally by regularising them under the Mhaje Ghar scheme. Apparently, this scheme is to appease and protect its vote bank.The government should re-examine this scheme since it will encourage encroachments in future.
