The Goa government has banned the foreigners from purchasing properties in the state. This crucial step is taken against the backdrop of cases of foreign land mafia and drug cartels buying real estate in Goa.

''It's a policy decision that foreigners will not be allowed to purchase land in Goa,'' said Law Minister Dayanand Narvekar in Panaji on Friday afternoon.

The opposition party at the centre, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the assembly sessions had stated discontent that these a large-scale supply of drugs and mafia money is incurred through property purchase in Goa.

The state government, which stumbled upon the first such case in 2005, had probed in detail all the land deals unearthing 400-odd such deals in violation of Foreign Exchangement Management Act (FEMA).

The state government now depends on the 100-year-old India Registration Act, 1908 which would be amended empowering the state to regulate the deals.

''Earlier, there were no proper powers given to the registration authorities in Goa to check whether the Reserve Bank of India had actually cleared the deal,'' the law minister said.

According to him, the Goa sub registrar was solely dependent on the submission given by the party without any powers to cross check whether RBI had certified the deal.

''At times, the purchasers may have submitted fake RBI clearances... Who knows?,'' Narvekar said.

In the recent years, it is believed thousands of foreigners have bought land in the state. While, in the record, it shows till December 2007, 428 of these properties were bought by the foreigners directly.

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