FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2024
Cleofato Almeida Coutinho
There is no respite for Goans. As they get ready to fight the proposed Sec 17(2) of the TCP Act, which they believe shall allow destruction of land protected by the regional plan, comes another salvo --there will be no regional plan henceforth. Planning shall be through ‘experts’ chosen by the Minister.
For the past three decades there has been a huge pressure on Goa’s limited land resources, not in keeping with the natural growth of population but fuelled by market speculation. The opaque process change of land conversions and change in land use, with huge kickbacks, has brought Goa to what it is. There is no trust in the administration. How long Goa’s civil society shall battle against the rapacious Town and Country Planning Dept? Precious judicial time is being wasted due to unreasonable and arbitrary provisions brought into the process of change of land use giving complete discretionary and arbitrary powers. One sultan attempted to turn this green state into a pink city via the Regional Plan 2011. After about two decades another ‘prince’ wishes to do away with the Regional Plan itself!
When Chapter III of TCP Act provides for preparation of Regional Plans, whether the minister could tell us that there shall be no regional plans is another issue. But we live in times when even seers supporting Brij Bushan Sharan Singh demanded change in ‘POSCO Law’!
The Regional Plan 2021 has been controversial since the time it was finalized. Though certain village groups had attacked the plan, the GBA had the courage of conviction in its bold stand that withdrawal of the plan would be more detrimental to the state. The highlight of the 2021 plan had been the freezing of developmental activity for the eco sensitive zones. This writer used the hospitality of this column to give credit where it was due amidst flak from the village groups who were not flexible over the consultation process in finalizing the plan. The process became controversial due to the otherwise low credibility of governance and general cynicism over anything done by the government.
The draft regional plan prepared by the committee which included globally renounced Architect and Urban Planner Padma Vibhushan Charles Correia and former India Chief Town Planner Edgar Rebeiro and current chairperson of Goa Foundation Dean D’Cruz had proposed, about 14% of the total land mass for settlement with over 50% of the land area being totally frozen as Eco-I Zone (forests, mangrove forest, private forest, water bodies, paddy fields and khazan lands) with another over 26% in Eco-II zones (orchards, cultivable land, salt pans, fish farms). What better could those who wish to preserve ecology expect?
If the draft plan was immediately implemented the state would have benefitted from the freezing of Eco-I and Eco-II zones, but the consultation as demanded by the society took time and even permitted certain intrusions in the process. The state could not expect any better proposal then the one proposed by the draft plan but the mistrust over anything to do with land use raised doubts which were exploited by the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to ‘claim’ that he was keeping the notified plan on hold.
The current TCP Minister tells us that Regional Plan 2021 has been a huge scam perpetrated with the State Level Committee members benefiting from it. He claimed that a land in village Assagao was converted from private forest to settlement. The TCP minister certainly needs to act on such tips, conduct and inquiry and hold the guilty responsible. There may have been some discrepancies which deserved correction keeping in view the broad parameters laid down by the Charles Correia led committee. The TCP minister may have even noted scams in the notified regional plan 2021. Specific frauds deserve to be corrected and the scamsters require to named, shamed and booked. That is the job and responsibility of the minister. The state and the ever vigilant society shall all stand by him as and when he corrects the frauds committed. But the problem is who takes the TCP Minister’s rants seriously? What happened to the Arpora-Nagoa-Parra and Calangute-Candolim ODPs for which the then said MLA Michael Lobo was pilloried, is known to all after the said MLA joined the ruling party. Amidst a great fanfare the minister announced the scrapping of Sec 16B of the TCP Act but has now designed another similar provision under Sec. 17(2) of the TCP Act.
To throw out the regional planning process due to frauds committed earlier is to throw out the baby with the bath tub. The state deserves a long term vision and a related spatial perspective for growth in this ecologically sensitive state. The regional plan updated from time to time in keeping with the requirement of the state and ensuring appropriate protection to the Eco-I and Eco-II zones is the need of the hour. The adhoc approach via the minister appointed ‘so called experts’ who shall plan depending upon who the TCP minister is neither required nor appropriate. It will be an arbitrary exercise only leading to destruction of what little is left of Goa. We all know how Sec 16B brought by one minister became a money spinner for another!
The present ruling establishment does not believe in accommodation of view points. They brazen out, however irrational their stand is. Goans are now used to battles lasting over decades. Another one has just started.
Goa deserves a transparent regional planning process in terms of the law in force. The Charles Correia led committee’s Eco-I and Eco-II Zones have to be preserved for posterity through the updated regional planning process and of course by the eternal vigilance of the society.
(The writer is a practicing advocate and a political thinker)
