Panaji, Mar 17 (TOI): The government will shortly come out with an ordinance to give more time to those people who, for genuine reasons, missed the deadline to submit their applications seeking regularisation of illegal structures. Only structures existing prior to February 28, 2014, will be considered for regularisation.
“We want to issue an ordinance to allow those people who missed the deadline to submit their application,” revenue minister Rohan Khaunte said.

The deadline was twice extended in the past. The last extension ended on January 23, 2017.

Khaunte said that once the ordinance comes into force, those who were unable to submit their cases can do so against the payment of fees of Rs 10,000. “The cut-off date (prior to February 2014) will not be changed,” Khaute said.

An officer attached to the revenue department said that there have been some genuine cases where people were unable to submit their applications within the stipulated time, hence the ordinance.

The issue, he said, was also raised by Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco saying that some people missed the deadline, and for such people extension must be granted.

The legislation allowing regularisation of structures in one’s private property was passed in the Goa legislative assembly in 2016 and was called the Goa Regularisation of Unauthorised Construction Bill.

Under the bill, unauthorised residential or commercial constructions in one’s own property, or carried out by a co-owner with written consent of other owners in a joint property, or dwelling houses by mundkar, can be considered for regularisation.

Illegal constructions within protected forest, wildlife sanctuary, no development zone, open space, public land, eco-sensitive zone, coastal regulation zone and khazan land do not come under the ambit of the legislation.

Two months ago, chief minister Manohar Parrikar had said that the government had received applications seeking to regularise illegal structures on comunidade land, and that such applications would not be granted.

The government will consider only those houses built in one’s own property, but without a NOC from the panchayat or town and country planning department.

The revenue department has received around 5,000-6,000 applications for regularisation.