Herald: What is the way forward in terms of the future of the Regional Plan 2021 (RP21). There are obviously two schools of thought: one says to scrap the plan and the other says to keep the plan under the same notification but make changes to it.
Dean D’Cruz: We definitely need to work with the existing plan because there are a lot of inputs in it. There are some things that have been missed or skipped due to political pressure at that time, like the eco-tourism zones. And there are little things that have crept into the village plans that were marked. The whole of Chimbel is illegal now. These were things that were layered into the plan. We should be having that last process where corrections are taking place. The problem with reopening this existing plan is that it needs to have very clear guidelines. It should be opened only for deletion of certain areas. Delete those eco-tourism zones. Delete any extra settlement areas. You work with those simple guidelines. The issue of the road width, which was extremely contentious – you can work on a solution for that.
Herald: The other thing is that you’ve got together a group of lawyers and also trying to work with village groups. Do you think it’s a good initiative?
DDC: Of all the movements coming together? Yes, It’s good that we all have come together, but it also compromises some issues. The village groups said lets go back to the draft plan. They don’t realise that the draft plan is not the plan. It’s not the visionary plan. It’s just the base. I know what we went through. Four years of making the plan – it’s a tremendous effort.
Herald: What is your solution? We don’t you want to go back to the draft plan?
DDC: Don’t go back to the draft plan. And ensure that there should be no scope for violations on this plan, otherwise we’ll be lost
with it.
Herald: Many people are saying that you’re taking this stand because you were a task force member and you want your plan to go through. Obviously, as a stakeholder, you wouldn’t want your plan to be junked.
DDC: People have accused me of that, saying that I’m attached to it because I’ve worked on it. My first priority is to see what’s good for Goa. If I’ve done something really bad, we’ll try to scrap it. But I believe we have put an honest effort into it and therefore it is good for Goa, and so we should just correct it. The entire process was painstaking.
Herald: Right now, the activists, lawyers and planners are coming together and holding meetings in various villages and talukas to create awareness. How do you react to this?
DDC: It’s good that people are coming together on the issue. At the last meeting, the compromise was don’t scrap, go back to the draft plan. It seems like a good compromise, but it really leaves everything hanging. In the meantime, what is going to be used? It is going to hold back development for some time, because it is going to take at least two years to prepare a new plan.
