PANJIM: The government has initiated the process to regularise illegal houses in the State. In the first phase local municipal councils will be directed to collect house tax from all such illegal structures.
Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza said the government has initiated the process to work out the modalities for regularization of such illegal houses. “The assurance was given in the last budget by then chief minister Manohar Parrikar. All MLAs are now stressing that we should start fulfilling the assurance,” he said.
D’Souza said that to begin with government will start imposing house tax on the houses in municipal areas. “The tax will not make them regular but at least they will have to pay for the services they enjoy from the government,” he clarified.
“The ownership issue needs to be handled carefully. We have to see whether the house is in government, private or comunidade (village insti ution) land,” he said.
Parrikar, while presenting Budget 2014-15, had announced the plan to give legal relief to almost 30,000 houses across the State, whose structures have been termed illegal due to non-fulfillment of certain formalities with the authorities.
The government had said that houses constructed before February 28, 2014, could be covered under the scheme.
