Extend the ‘humanitarian ground’ to also save legal structures from development axe
On Thursday night, the Goa assembly passed two controversial bills—the Goa Legislative Diploma No. 2070, dated 15-4-1961 (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and the Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction (Amendment) Bill, 2025—amid strong protests by the Opposition. The first one allows the regularisation of illegal houses on comunidade land, while the other gives a two-year window to regularise unauthorised structures.
Is this the first time that the government is trying to regularise illegal structures, including houses? Absolutely not! More than 20 years ago, the then BJP government announced the regularisation of illegal houses. Money was also collected by the revenue department, and only these applicants can tell whether their houses were regularised. After that, more such moves had also been made.
The High Court had come down heavily on illegal structures in Goa, and had drawn a clear roadmap to eliminate them category-wise in a phased manner. Now, the government wants to protect the same houses in a different way. When it suits us, we are ready to implement High Court orders. Otherwise, we use our powers to nix the orders mildly or fully.
How did the illegal structures come up, and how is it that no authority demolished them over the years? Civic bodies have failed in their job to curb illegal constructions. For vote bank politics, panchayat members support encroachers and squatters. When it comes to elected representatives, it is an open secret why they close their eyes or give illegal structures patronage. The Opposition has also alleged that the bill is to create a vote bank for the ruling side.
Let’s look at another justification given by the government – it says the bill will act as a deterrent against future unauthorised constructions. One reason why squatters occupy government or comunidade land is that they are confident that, sooner or later, their houses will be regularised. What image are we projecting to the people, including those from other parts of the country? That we don’t believe in demolishing illegal constructions and instead, ‘on humanitarian grounds’, have mercy on those who have undertaken illegal/unauthorised constructions?
“This initiative aims to strike a balance between providing humanitarian relief to long-term occupants and preserving the integrity and ownership rights of the comunidades,” states the government in the bill. How many times did the government think of providing humanitarian relief when, for example, houses are proposed to be demolished partly, or at least their compound walls, for ‘development’? Village roads are converted into major district roads by causing destruction to legally built houses along the roads. Residents of Ecoxim and Salvador do Mundo are gearing up to fight the authorities to protect their homes. Will they get humanitarian relief? Or is this relief given only to those who have indulged in illegal constructions?
When we say that the bill is aimed at “preserving the integrity and ownership rights of the comunidades”, we need to question ourselves as to how many times we have supported the comunidade in demolishing illegal structures in the past “to preserve their integrity”.
It is the responsibility of the government to come out with a clear-cut mechanism to stop new illegal constructions coming up in the state. The High Court has said it in clear terms. The government must also incentivise those who follow the law and don’t get into illegalities.
