When right thinking people of Goa- true Goans – are desperately trying to take decisions about their land and their villages, the government seems to be snatching away these powers to fuel their skewed version of development which essentially means more construction.
The madness of converting villagers into concrete monstrosities by bringing them under ODP areas and not under the Regional Plan must stop. Irrespective of the justification Calangute MLA Michael Lobo gives for bringing Calangute and Candolim under ODP areas, the decision is not that of a popularly elected government or MLA. It is of a business man who is in partnership with builders. Adding salt to injury is Mr Lobo’s justification of the decision by saying that this will lead to more control and development and better use of land. How does this justification hold? The villages of Calangute, Baga and Candolim need less building and construction, they need less houses and hotels and they need de-congestion. They need more spaces to be preserved and illegal spaces which are occupied to go. And for that the Regional Plan has to come back in a people friendly and people endorsed version, not an Outline Development Plan which adds more construction.
The Regional Plan 2021 is a document which needed people’s participation. People have been betrayed and are fighting for the plan to come to the people. Michael Lobo got elected as an MLA on a BJP ticket because his party promised that the flaws in the Regional Plan of 2021 would be corrected, and fresh plan with people’s suggestions and views would be incorporated. He was not elected to take two key panchayats out of the Regional Plan and bring them under the ODP, which will be under the control of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority of which Michael Lobo is the Chairman.
The issue goes beyond bringing these villages under the ODP. The issue is of being above suspicion. Would Michael Lobo have pushed for these two panchayats to come under the Outline Development Plan for urban areas, if he was not the Chairman of the very authority, which will take decisions about mega crore construction projects? Is this a honey deal being offered to this very vocal MLA, who speaks his mind to soften his attacks, sometimes against his own government? The strong indication, if not a firm information is that yes, Lobo is being “settled” (a term that means compromise in politics).
He can claim to be an MLA who has worked for Calangute’s development and beautification, he can claim to have spoken out against the garbage menace, he can rightly claim that he stood as a soldier when Goan shack owners were being harassed by the Tourism Department. But this one act of him shamelessly planning and backing the inclusion of these two panchayats into ODP areas takes away all that he has been praised for in the past. People won’t forgive him.
The Land use map and register which are critical to determining the specific uses of tracts of land has not been made. Lobo cleverly says that the plan in the Regional Plan will be used as a basis for this. This goes against Chapter 6 Section 26 of the TCP Act and Rules 1975 which makes it mandatory for consultation with local authorities for the preparation of the Land use plan and the ODP. In this case ‘authority’ has been defined as the Panchayat. Lobo has said that he will take this to the panchayats but the panchayats have already spoken. There are gram sabha and panchayat resolutions opposing the inclusion of the two Calangute and Candolim in the ODP. Lobo’s government may brazen this out and do a sham consultation exercise and state that due process has been followed, or a phoney BJP picked people’s delegation may be called to endorse it and that will pass for consultation.
The Calangute MLA and the BJP perhaps do not realise that they will have to meet the people of Calangute at the tinto, at street corners and even in their homes, a little over a year from now to seek their votes for the next assembly election. If he pushes this ODP project against the wishes of the people of Calangute constituency, he will be voted out in the next election irrespective of which party or front’s representative he becomes.
