Senior journalist Sandesh Prabhudessai’s recent release ‘Ajeeb Goa’s Gajab Politics’ on the eve of Goa elections has highlighted the exploitation of Goa and its land by the ruling elite.
With nearly 28% of our land being covered with forest and another 60% being cultivable, land for private enterprise commercial, industrial and residential has always been in short supply. In 1974, with avowed objective of creating a planning infrastructure for better development of this tiny State, without compromising the State’s environment and ecology brought the Town and Country Planning Act. The regional plans were to be prepared under the law taking into consideration natural resources of the State. What actually happened to the regional plans is now history!
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Goa’s politics started undergoing a change even before the liberalisation of the Indian economy. As the tourism sector which got industry status in 1987 started booming, the real estate market took off. The India’s rich wanted a Goa slice. It had become a matter of prestige and standing to say ‘I have property in Goa’. That brought holiday homes here. Nearly a quarter of these houses are closed throughout the year. Most of them are used only at Christmas time. This has distorted the country-side in the coastal belt beyond recognition.
The avowed objective of the TCP law in saving Goa received a first major assault by the 1988 amendment which empowered the TCP board to change land use at any time. As economic reforms rolled in, demand for land increased world over. Goa could not be far behind. Powerful lobbies found the only way to deal with the land scarcity by diverting land from agricultural to residential, commercial and industrial use. Value of land increased exponentially due to change in land use granted at the request of private parties. Land became a commodity that was bought and sold and the market rules of demand and supply brought in the real estate agents and land brokers. The lucrative nature of the transactions was such that the land dealers themselves decided to become legislators. The fall of the Pratapsingh Rane government in 1990 was the start of real estate insurgency in politics. There has not been looking back since then.
The TCP Board controlled by the government became a powerful weapon in the hands of those in power as conversion of land brought in meteoric rise of land prices. It brought wind-fall for those at the helm of affairs. The lucrative nature of the TCP portfolio became apparent. TCP portfolio became a money spinning racket. Just count the governments that were formed and brought down by that portfolio. Look at the names of those who held that portfolio since 1990. Check out how PDAs function and who headed them. It’s a real scandal!
Between 1988 to 2005 the TCP Board entertained 2241 changes in land use covering over 12 sq kms. The illicit changes brought in a clandestine manner escaped the attention of the otherwise educated civil society. Perhaps the impact was not realised due to lack of vigilance. In 2005, under President’s rule and armed with the opinion of the then AG Mario Bruto Da Costa, the then CS Kiran Dingra halted the changes through the TCP Board.
The vigilant civil society acted with alacrity in 2007 to save what is left of Goa by scrapping the RP 2011.
The RP 2021 prepared by Charles Correia Committee had at least saved two lakh hectares of forests, mangroves, water bodies and low lying paddy fields classified as eco sensitive zone (ECZ-1) and another one lakh hectares of orchid, cultivable lands, salt and fish pans and mud flats called as eco sensitive II (ECZ-II). There was one km buffer zone around wild life sanctuaries and national parks. In the situation that we were in, RP 2021 with all its defects pointed out by the civil society, was the best possible way out.
Despite a vigilant civil society scoring a major victory in getting the RP 2011 scraped and successfully getting the SEZs in Goa cancelled, the assembly had the audacity and gumption to bring in Sec. 16B for changing zones in regional plan in “public interest”. Public Interest? For the past two and half years the changes under the controversial sec. 16B notified by the government shows a total arbitrary change in land use without any technical, environmental or ecological consideration taken into account. In fact the amended provision goes against the very purpose for which TCP Act 1974 was brought into being. Over two crore sq mts of land being notified for change in land use. If this is allowed to continue, the Goa story will be over. Many leaders have become dealers in this and shall be back in the fray for this year’s elections.
Goa’s land, a free gift of nature to Goans ought to be utilised for their growth by sustainable and balanced development of the State, but as Prabudessai puts it “politics of business and business of politics has ruined Goa by short sighted political class for short term monetary gains”
It is our misery political interests and private selfish interests have intersected making our leaders into dealers. Neither Manohar Parrikar nor Pramod Sawant has shown statesmanship in the matter. The deafening silence of the ruling party and notifying 41 more cases just before elections, shows they care very little for the ‘idea of Goa’. We have another opportunity this year to reverse the malaise. The manifestos of all political parties have not yet been released. It is time for the educated and vigilant civil society stands up to demand in one voice from every political party an assurance over saving at least the eco sensitive zones as per RP-2021.
(The writer is a practising advocate, senior faculty in law and political analyst)
