On December 19, 2018, 57th Goa Liberation Day was celebrated. Goa Liberation Day programme was held in Panaji in North Goa. Goa legislative assembly speaker Pramod Sawant also presented Goa Chief Minister’s Fire Service Medals for meritorious service as part of Liberation Day celebrations in Panaji. Goa was liberated on 19th December1961, from around 450 years of Portuguese rule. In 1963, the Parliament passed the 12th Amendment Act to the Constitution of India, formally integrating the captured territories into the Indian Union. Goa, Daman and Diu became a Union Territory. Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which was previously a part of the Estado da India, but independent between 1954 and 1961, became a separate Union Territory. In 1987 Goa was separated from Daman and Diu and made a full-fledged state.