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The Goa government has introduced two significant bills aimed at regularising unauthorised structures on comunidade land and digitising urban land records to improve ownership clarity. One of the proposed bills focuses on providing legal status to homes and buildings built without permission on comunidade land prior to 2020, a move that could impact thousands of properties across the state. Simultaneously, a digital initiative has been launched to modernise urban land records, enhancing accuracy and reducing disputes. Together, these reforms aim to address long-standing land ownership issues and improve regulatory oversight in Goa's urban planning framework.
The Goa government has initiated a two-pronged approach to tackle some of the state's most pressing land-related issues, regularising illegal constructions on comunidade lands and improving transparency in property ownership through digitisation. Advertisement
A bill was tabled in the assembly proposing the legalisation of unauthorised structures erected on comunidade lands before 2020. This move is expected to benefit thousands of residents, particularly those who have built homes or commercial spaces without official approval. The bill allows for the regularisation of these structures after verifying their existence before the cutoff date, provided they do not fall under forest, eco-sensitive, or restricted coastal zones.
Officials revealed that this proposal is aimed at resolving long-pending grievances and streamlining property records for lands governed by comunidade bodies, traditional village institutions that still control vast tracts of land in Goa. Many such lands were encroached upon over the years as urbanisation increased, leading to large-scale unregulated development, especially in the coastal belt.
While this move may offer relief to occupants, the proposal has sparked debates around its potential to encourage future encroachments. Legal experts and opposition members have questioned whether legitimising such structures might set a dangerous precedent and undermine land use regulations. However, state authorities maintained that the initiative is strictly restricted to past constructions and includes built-in safeguards to avoid misuse.
In parallel, the government has rolled out a digitisation programme for urban land records. This system will enable owners to access accurate details of their properties online, streamlining mutation, transfer, and verification processes. By integrating satellite imagery and cadastral mapping into official databases, this initiative seeks to reduce boundary disputes and ownership confusion, a chronic issue in the state due to fragmented and outdated manual records.
The Directorate of Settlement and Land Records has begun scanning and updating thousands of urban land records as part of the pilot phase. Officials explained that the digitised database will eventually be made publicly accessible and integrated with services such as property tax systems, town planning permissions, and banks for loan processing.
Digitising urban land data is part of a broader plan to bring all property-related information onto a unified digital platform. The aim is to reduce bureaucratic red tape, speed up land transactions, and ensure cleaner title deeds, which are critical for buyers, developers, and financial institutions alike.
In recent years, Goa has seen a surge in land disputes, partly due to conflicting documentation and unregistered transactions. By streamlining property records and introducing legal frameworks for existing settlements, the state government appears to be addressing both legacy problems and modernisation goals in tandem.
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