PANJIM: The National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations (NCHRO), Goa unit disapproves the undemocratic and oblique manner of passing the Goa Bhumiputra Adhikarini Bill. However according to NCHRO President Ranjan Solomon the way public and the Opposition’s united stand made government withdraw it and call for public suggestions is a welcome development.
“The announcement of the Chief Minister that the Bill would now be introduced in the next Assembly session after taking into account public suggestions is a clear signal that the Bill is being withdrawn. The Chief Minister has not explicitly stated this. However, the very fact that the name of the Bill would be changed means that the government would require the nod of the House in the way that the idea of Bhumiputra is defined,” said Solomon.
Solomon said that the Bill has created confusion between people of Goan origin, referred to as Bhumiputra, against the issue of domicile. “A mere 30 years of residence cannot grant the status of Goan origin to any person. The confusion was only to create an atmosphere for acceptance of the Bill meant for the migrant labour force,” he said.
The passing of the Bill created needless tensions between the locals and the migrants at a time when the State is passing through a bad phase of the Coronavirus pandemic. There is suspicion that the government was using the people’s pre-occupation of COVID-19 to push through the Bill in an obscured way.
The Bill did not make any distinction between an encroacher or a rent paying tenant and/or residing in a house under an agreement. Even a person who is ordered to be evicted by a court of law in force could claim protection.
It is clearly an assault on the citizens’ right to property. The law was so shoddily drafted that any person occupying a structure in April 2019 with house tax, water and electricity connection that does not even stand in that person’s name can claim ownership, he said.
In 2016 a law was brought in to regularise unauthorised structures which do not meet the requirement of building and planning regulations. That law was just before the 2017 Assembly elections. Nothing is heard of that law and only the influential few may have benefited. That law too was used as part of an election strategy, the NCHRO president said.
