14 March , 2008. Panaji: Amending a 100-year-old Act, the Goa government on Friday decided to ban the sale of land to foreigners in the state. 

"It's a policy decision that foreigners will not be allowed to purchase land in Goa. Earlier, there were no proper powers (given) to the registration authorities in Goa to check whether the Reserve Bank of India had cleared a deal," State Law Minister Dayanand Narvekar said.

The Goa government has decided to bring in the Legislative Assembly an amendment to Section 22 of the Registration Act, 1908, which will empower the state government to ban the sale as part of public policy. The budget session of the assembly begins on March 24. 

The sale of land to the foreigners had become a contentious issue in Goa with state government unearthing 400-odd cases of sale of agricultural property to foreigners. 

The state government had constituted a committee, which studied all the proposals threadbare and referred 298 cases to the Union Enforcement Directorate for further action. 

Officials here said that these cases had clear evidence of foreigners buying properties in Goa in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). 

Section 22 of the Act empowers the state government to refuse registration of certain documents which are opposed to public policy. 

Tour operators say there is no decline in holiday bookings in Goa as Britons tracked the probe in the suspected sea side murder of British teenager Scarlette Kealing.

A police report said she died from drug overdose and drowned in beach water. But a second autopsy confirmed her family's fears that she was raped and murdered.

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Goa has received some bad press in the British media but many in the UK continue to repose faith in the delights of its sun and sand.

Many Britons flock to real estate exhibitions in London, Manchester and elsewhere to buy property in Goa. 

Many have relocated to Goa, and some reports from Goa quote them as saying that they feel "very safe" in Goa, and would never move back to the UK.

An army of British journalists has flocked to cover the Scarlett case. 

Apart from reports about the progress of the case, some have lamented the changing nature of what Goa offers for tourists.

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