PANAJI: The Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat on Wednesday said that the state law department would be thoroughly restructured in the next two months, on the lines of the Union law ministry and additional staff like two joint secretaries, besides legal officers and legal assistants looking after 2-3 departments would be appointed for vetting the proposals etc and expeditiously clearing the documents.

Replying to the issues raised by members of the House during discussion on demands for law, district courts, prosecution, election office, legislature secretariat, etc held by him, the Chief Minister also said that the government would construct a hostel for the MLAs and provide all facilities for holding various legislative works and events like Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meetings.

As regards to discrepancies in the electoral rolls, he said that he agreed with the complaints made by the legislators and said that the Chief Electoral Officer has already started taking action on the matter, even as he said that names of foreign nationals would be deleted from the rolls. He also said that the new software developed by the Election Commission of India would help get rid of double/multiple registration of voters as well as help in online registration of voters.

He further told the House that the government was in the process of acquiring premises to locate the South Goa Administrative Tribunal. He also said that the proposal for revising the pay scales of assistant public prosecutors and public prosecutors was under active consideration of the government.

Dealing on the issue of problems faced by the public in the offices of sub-registrars and corruption involved therein, he said that computerisation of offices in Mapusa, Margao and Panaji has eased the problem to a great extent and that he has personally monitored the cases. He also said that offices of sub-registrars would be computerised all over the state.

On the issue of properties being registered without verification, he said that it was not the duty of the sub-registrar to verify authenticity of records placed before them and that the onus lay on the buyer of the property, through various means including advertising in newspapers. As regards to valuation of properties, he said that government has fixed rates that have to be followed by officials and anyone found disobeying the government directives would be dealt with sternly.Earlier, while participating in the discussion on the demands, the members brought to the notice of the House the discrepancies in the electoral rolls, pendency of large number of cases in courts, vacancies of judges, public prosecutors and assistant public prosecutors and difficulties faced by the MLAs in absence of a hostel.

The deputy leader of opposition, Mr Francisco D’Souza who led the discussions brought to the notice of the House the rampant corruption in sub-registrar’s office at Pernem and the harassment meted out to public if the sale deeds were not done through the sub-registrar. He also demanded setting up of fast track courts to bring down pendency of cases.

Mr Dayanand Narvekar demanded that MLAs heading various committees be provided secretarial staff for better functioning while Mr Anant Shet raised the issue of evacuee properties. Ms Victoria Fernandes wanted that all information about the House debates, etc be uploaded on the legislature secretariat website.

Mr Vijay Pai Khot demanded that responsibility for mistakes in electoral rolls should be fixed and action taken while Mr Dilip Parulekar demanded a separate cell in mamlatdar offices to handle election-related matters. Mr Mahadev Naik demanded action against block level officers for not deleting names of "non-existent" voters while Mr Damodar Naik spoke about pendency in court cases and difficulties in correction of names.