Ban sale of agricultural land to non-Goans: Congress

PANAJI - A special legislation is necessary in Goa to ban sale of agricultural land to foreigners and non-Goans considering the land resource crunch here, state Congress president Subhash Shirodkar has said.

Shirodkar told IANS here Friday that he would meet Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and urge him to speed up passing of the legislation in the state assembly which is aimed at safeguarding the scarce land resources and help the state maintain its unique identity.

Such a legislation is definitely needed. I will ask the chief minister to speed up the process, Shirodkar said.

Goa has been looking at an Uttarakhand-style legislation, banning the sale of agricultural land to those who don’t belong to the state, including foreigners.

Civil society groups have been protesting the inability of the state government to stop indiscriminate construction of mega housing projects in coastal villages, fearing such a rapid influx of non-indigenous population could upset the demographic profile of Goa in a short period of time.