Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill, 2021

Recently, Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill, 2021 was passed the Goa Assembly.

• It recognises anyone living in the state for 30 years or more as a ‘Bhumiputra (son of the soil)’.
• The bill also proved such a person the right to own his or her ‘small dwelling unit’ if ownership was undetermined so far.

Key features:

• The Bill provides for a mechanism to give ownership right to the self-occupied dweller of a small housing unit to enable him to live with dignity and self-respect and exercise his right to life.
• Once recognised as a Bhumiputra, an individual can stake claim to ownership of their house of not more than 250 sq m, built before April 1, 2019.

Objective of the Bill: To enable the ‘mool Goenkar (original Goan)’ to live with dignity.

Need for:

In the last so many years there have been cases of homes built by a person or his parents but the land is not in his name.

• There is always a sword dangling over their head that someone will file a case against them (over ownership).
• The land is of different kinds like ancestral property, comunidade property, panchayat land.
• Everyone had wished for the house that they lived in, their generations lived in, to be theirs.
• There were several such cases in rural areas including Sattari, Sanguem and Pernem, where the dewllers built 250-300 sq m homes, built by their parents, but the land could never be theirs.

How does one apply?

The Bill provides for the constitution of a committee named the ’Bhumiputra Adhikarini’.

• The Bhumiputra may apply to the committee if his house has been built before the cut-off date.
• The committee will invite objections within 30 days, including from the land owner which could also be a local body, and then take a decision of granting ownership to the Bhumiputra.

Composition of ‘Bhumiputra Adhikarini’:

This committee will be consisting of the Deputy Collector as its Chairperson, and officials from the departments of Town and Country Planning, Forest and Environment, and Mamlatdars of respective talukas as its members.

Why is the Opposition objecting?

• The Opposition had said there was not enough time in the curtailed Assembly session to study or debate the Bill, and passed “in a haste”.
• This Bill has opened the floodgates for the migrant population that has been staying in densely populated areas in Goa and has no legality.
• It called this the ruling BJP’s “election engineering” and flagged concerns over illegal structures being regularised.

Source: Indian Express