THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Edwin Mascarenhas
"Growth for the sake of growth, is the ideology of the cancer cell”
– Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey, an American nature writer, suggests that if cities grow needlessly, they will become a cancer and there won’t be any purpose to their growth. We cannot make a city grow just for the sake of development and increasing infrastructure because many times they are unplanned and are just used for namesake.
The Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) has recently adopted a draft plan for Vasco da Gama Planning Area: ODP-2030 and seeking views of the general public on the same.
Instantly my thoughts traveled directly to the Land Use Map and Land Use Register on which the present draft needs to be founded.
Numerous objections were raised and suggestions made by people in individual capacity and resolutions adopted by the Gram Sabha and representations were made by the Village Panchayats on the same. And noticeably all the valuable inputs provided seemed to be ignored in the present Draft ODP-2030.
So, for whose benefit is this new ODP-2030 being prepared? Is it for the benefit of the residents of the planning area, who are the real stake holders or is it a auction of prime zones to the highest bidder?
Seemingly there is no semblance of planning to promote a healthy environment and calibrated development to suit the lifestyle and basic needs of local residents and animal life.
On the contrary, the plan seems to be a sinister design, primarily to satisfy the appetite of a selected few and in turn benefit the politically appointed so called planners sitting on the Authority, with absolutely no benefit to the people living in the planning area.
Having said that, I would further my arguments relying on the following:
a)The zoning is done selectively, and probably on requests of only those land owners and builders who are using this as a golden opportunity to manipulate the system and reap huge profits by converting orchard lands, natural reserves, steep hill slopes into High Rise Residential and Commercial Zones.
b) The burden on the already dwindling infrastructure has not been considered, and it gives a clear impression that the Authority seems to be in a hurry to urbanise the rural villages of Chicalim, Dabolim, Sancoale, Chicolna and Bogmalo into urban concrete jungles, for a few coins of silver.
c) There is not a single instance of an attempt made to revisit the current ODP 2026 and make necessary amendments to reverse the vertical development zones doled out in order to reduce the load on the crumbling infrastructure and create open spaces and reserve land for future needs and welfare of residents for creating community assets.
d) The provisional Thomas and Araujo Report on Private Forests does not seem to have been given any importance in this Draft ODP 2030 as much as it is given to create selective unsustainable High-Rise Zones in the Planning Area.
e) Regulations, No. 6A.4 of The Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations 2010) has been flouted by illegally creating Central Commercial Zones (C1), even in steep hill slopes, which are to be restricted to Central Business District (CBD) areas of Municipal Council/Corporation areas of Panaji, Margao, Mapusa and Ponda only.
f) Imaginary 6 meters, 8 meters and 10 meters roads have been marked, with steep slopes and hairpin bends to justify the creation of the C1, C2 and S1, zones, even in locations where such roads cannot be constructed due to existence of rural settlements and characteristics of the land such as forest, orchards and hill slopes.
On dissecting the Draft ODP-2030, there is little doubt that the future needs of the stake holders, the locals and especially the ethnic village population of Chicalim, Dabolim, Chicolna and Sancoale have been grossly ignored.
It is imperative that the exercise of collecting data for the Land Use Plan and compiling a Land Use Register needs to re-notified and be carried out all over again, following the entire procedure prescribed under Section 26 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act 1974: Rule 10, and if need be, by conducting extensive joint surveys along with the stake holders and Panchayat ward members to collect realistic data to assess the existing load on the infrastructure.
Based on the data collected the Authority may need to take hard decisions to reduce the residential and commercial load in certain areas, by adopting corrective measures to reverse many vacant lands from high rise Residential and Commercial zones in the current ODP-2026 to low housing zones, orchards, green reserves and open spaces.
In order to implement rational planning, the Authority may need to freeze issuing construction licences for C1 and S1 developments outside the Central Business District (CBD) areas and engage a professional independent agency to conduct a study on Land Resource Planning for sustainable development, and recommend to the Government the level of infrastructure necessary for sustainable growth within the planning horizon.
The present practice by planning and development authorities indulging in doling out selective High Rise Residential and Commercial zones in villages is highly condemnable. I will not hesitate to term the Draft ODP-2030 notified by Mormugao Planning and Development Authority as a destructive plan for lack of constructive knowledge; a cancer cell in short.
(The author is a social activist)
