PANJIM: Raising a strong objection to the BJP-led government’s proposed move to regularize illegal structures, the Leader of the Opposition Pratapsingh Rane on Thursday warned the government that their move will convert Goa into slums. 

The former Chief Minister admitting to the fact of “vote bank” politics told the State Legislative Assembly that with the elections set to approach soon, these slums will be the major vote bank for all the MLAs. 

The allegations stunned Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Revenue, Francis D’Souza who had no firm answer or justification to the same. 

“Regularization of illegal structures is a blatant illegality that the government wants to commit. As per the Supreme Court order, one cannot regularize illegal structures lying on village community land including comunidade,” Rane said during Question Hour.  “The move will convert Goa into slums. It is high time that we implement the Regional Plan 2021 or else Goa will become a land of slums,” he added questioning Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar as to why the State Budget failed to give any assurance as to when the RP 21 will be implemented. 

“With the elections around the corner, we MLAs will flush out voting cards to these slums for votes,” Rane commented. 

Rane said that the vote bank should not be at the cost of Goa and its interest. “Illegal structures are coming everywhere and our government wants to regularize these structures,” he alleged. 

Earlier, D’Souza admitting that most of the managing committees of the comunidade are non-functional, announced to nominate some official as in charge of these lands. 

There are a total of 214 comunidades in Goa with 90 located in South Goa and the rest scattered in Central and North Goa. 

The leader of the Opposition informed the House about how the comunidades are involved in selling their plots illegally, without the government’s consent. 

“I admit such illegal activities are taking place and in many cases it is beyond our control,” the Minister admitted.