The BJP Government’s plan to regularize illegal houses by getting a sinister ordinance seems yet another desperate attempt to influence the voters in the ensuing elections. This policy decision of the government throws interesting questions about the legalities of structures which have come up especially in the coastal areas of Goa. It is evident that Licenses were not obtained by the owners for their illegal constructions due to certain deficiencies in their property papers, FAR’S, lack of setbacks, building heights, or encroachment into traditional accesses or even into the neighbor’s territory. Legalizing these illegal structures makes the people who went through the headache of getting approvals look like fools under the planned ordinance and portrays the government as a Good Samaritan. This ordinance will open the floodgates of corruption when everyone will rush for legalizing their illegal structures no matter if it stands in their own property, ancestral or disputed one, or even in their neighbor’s territory. Regularizing these structures will complicate and bring panic in the minds of the people whose property has been usurped by builders and land grabbers.
The government has already committed a blunder under Section 94A of the Health Act by providing water and electricity connections to illegal structures the sanctity of which is at the disposal of Health Officers where again money plays an important role. If we take a rough survey we would be surprised how many illegal structures like buildings and houses have come up in Goa in a record time under the eyes of our Panchayats, Town & Country Planning and the Block Development Officers. These agencies have directly or indirectly helped builders and arrogant house owners to flout all rules laid down for house and building construction. It is a fact that FAR’s and road widening areas only exist on blue print or only until the Completion Certificate is granted by the Town & Country Planning after being recommended by their Dealing Hands who say “All is well” after a “Happy Ending” site Inspection. Once the so called Occupancy Certificate is granted, FAR’s are brazenly modified by illegal extensions and public areas encroached upon by the builders and house owners with the authorities throwing the ball in each other’s court. The Health Act had already emboldened people who could not get Plan approvals to go for illegal buildings and houses as getting water and electricity connection was only a step away with a 15 day deadline after the necessary orders from the Health Officers. All these defaulters will be ultimately rewarded with their illegal structures being regularized no matter where it stands or in whose property it stands under the guise of regularization at the cost of sustained planning and development of the state.
It is a known fact that even if an NOC is required from the landlord under the ordinance for regularization of an illegal structure, the same can be easily forged in his absence or maybe unknowingly even in his very own presence. Under the ordinance, the government is shamelessly rewarding the same people who have flouted the very rules framed by the government itself for house construction with a single visible motive to remain in power as the winds of anti-incumbency and people’s frustration blow over them hot and cold. If the government believes in rewarding wrong doers, then all the prisoners languishing in our various jails should be pardoned and rewarded with freedom in the election year. The ulterior motive of the government to regularize illegal houses need to be countered by the political parties, activists and citizens as structures which were illegal will soon be legalized as the prior conditions imposed by the government for regularization will be only on paper or faked
The government has to think twice before this draconian ordinance for regularization of illegal structures is enforced so that its various repercussions on the people and Goa are ascertained in the right mind frame and not keeping only the elections in mind! If governance is only about fulfilling election promises, then the BJP’s promise to bring back the black money stashed abroad and fill in the accounts of the people should be accomplished first.
