Revenue dept forms expert panel to study illegal homes built on pvt land

Panaji: Amidst concerns about illegal structures on comunidade land being regularised, govt has formed a 10-member expert committee to examine the irregular use and unauthorised construction of residential houses on non-govt land.The committee, which will have additional collector Gurudas Desai as member secretary, will examine how the state’s land is being used, and subsequently recommend policies for the sustainable use of land in the state.“The revenue department wants the experts to study cases where residential houses were constructed and are in existence for several years on non-govt land without ownership rights and to suggest appropriate legal, policy or administrative measures for conferring ownership and regularising such dwelling units, subject to eligibility and public interest,” said the state revenue department in a notification.The committee, which was given a three-month period to complete its study, will also check the feasibility of proposing suitable regularisation measures wherever appropriate in accordance with public interest and legal permissibility.Goa govt has already said that it is introducing a bill in the monsoon session to regularise unauthorised houses and structures built on govt and comunidade lands.Govt has appointed senior advocate Ramchandra Ramani as the chairman of the committee.

He will be joined by Portuguese laws expert advocate Aires Pinto Furtado and advocates Amrut Ghatwal, Pritam Moraes, and Prasad Naik.From govt’s side, panchayat director Siddhi Halarnkar, revenue joint secretary Surendra Naik, director of settlement and land records Chandrakant Shetkar, and archives department archivist Balaji Shenvy will be on the committee.The committee has also been tasked with studying the impact of ongoing projects being executed by govt and the private sector on non-govt land in the state.Once the expert committee completes its study, it will recommend legislations, amendments, or simplification of existing processes to ensure “optimum utilisation and effective conservation” of land.