PANAJI
The State government has regularised almost 1500 unauthorised houses under Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction Act, 2016. No new applications seeking regularisation are currently accepted by the government.
The Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction Act, 2016 (Goa Act 20 of 2016) was enacted to make a provision for regularisation of unauthorised constructions carried out in certain lands in the state before February 28, 2014.
The original time limit for filing applications was 180 days, which was subsequently extended to 210 days on December 26, 2016. Thereafter, on September 18, 2018 another 30 days time period was given for filing such applications which expired on October 18, 2018. Late in January, 2023, the government granted final extension of 90 days to make applications.
As per available information, of the total 10,000 applications received seeking regularization of their houses, government rejected 3,092 applications while granting approval to 1,509. Almost 5,583 applications are currently pending for decision.
The maximum number of applications was received from South Goa- 5,105 of which 732 have got approval, while 2488 are rejected and another 1,885 are pending decision.
In North, of the total 5,079 applications, 777 have been approved while 604 are rejected. The decision on 3,698 applications is awaited.
According to sources, the applications were rejected on various grounds like lack of documentation, structure being located in No Development Zone, CRZ areas, open spaces as well as on the government land. “There are some cases which are in legal dispute. They also stands rejected as per the provisions made in the Act,” sources said.
Sources said that last year in January, the government amended the Act, granting 90 days additional time to receive fresh applications to regularise houses. “However, with the end of 90 days, we have stopped accepting new applications till date,” sources said.
