SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024
Old Goa is a unique case, this Village Panchayat of Old Goa administers 3 revenue villages — Ella, Bainguinim and Panelim as well as part of the Revenue village of Chimbel.
It connects to the City of the Corporation of Panaji on the west and has two of the most important connectivity nodes of the state running through it — the NH4 and the Konkan Railway Line. Major District Roads 1 & 4 also run through the village. At the same time, it has 14 ancient monuments and sites of national importance, another 7 of State importance. These wonders of man-made heritage span from the Kadamba period, Bijapuri remains and India's most famous renaissance / baroque structures built during Portuguese reign. There are at least 20 more sites of regional value that are yet to be legally protected, these include the 25km remains of the fortress wall and the pre-colonial inner-walls, arch of conception and spring at Bainguinim. Old Goa also has a significant amount of Natural heritage, there are portions of protected forests, no-development slopes, a large wetland, several low-lying Khazans, and a Coastal Regulatory Zone along the Mandovi River.
Collectively, these heritage sites consume around 50% of the total area of the village. Given the pressure from the drivers of development mentioned above, and the lack of availability of land, planning for development in the village is a task that needs to be addressed systematically and sensibly. The approach the state has taken towards this goal, however, has not been consistent with these aims.
In December 2017 the Greater Panaji PDA was notified for the settlements that form Panaji’s suburbs — allegedly without consultation with the Village Panchayats and thus in violation of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 which devolved Land Use Planning to the Panchayats. In the next 6 months following spirited protests by locals under the banner of Goa Against PDA 10 Panchayats withdrew from the PDA. Only the Panchayats of Taleigao and Old Goa remained with the Corporation of the City of Panaji as Planning Areas. Then Minister for Planning, Vijai Sardessai placated locals saying that only 150 metres buffer along the National Highway will be taken under PDA.
It is important to note that the declaration of a Planning Area used to be linked to planning an entire settlement (Village Panchayat / Municipality) through an ODP. But the Goa Town and Country Planning Act 1974 was amended to allow the government to declare a part of a settlement as a planning area. This amendment to the Act is in contravention to planning theory — which demands that a plan be a holistic guiding framework for a settlement — and relate to administrative boundaries. The arbitrary nature of 150 metres from the highway crosses multiple electoral wards and cuts through individual plots?
In November of 2020 the situation was further exacerbated when the Panchayat of Old Goa forwarded a proposal to the TCP Board to declare a further area as Planning Area, which was promptly accepted by the board. It later came to be known that the Panchayat never consulted the villagers in the Gram Sabha, and instead based its justification on the basis of 3 letters. One of the letters came from a relative of a Pancha, and another allegedly from an individual who does not even reside in the Panchayat Jurisdiction.
Once again after a massive protest, held in spite of Coronavirus lockdowns, the Panchayat and the TCP Board retracted their proposal. On the basis of the Resolution passed in the Gram Sabha and the statement by the TCP Minister, citizens and villagers were under the impression that Old Goa too had recused itself from the PDA. They were in for a shock when a gazette notification in April 2021 approved the Land-Use Register and Map for Old Goa — the first step in preparing an ODP. It appears that the Planning Area remains a narrow strip of 150 meters along the highway, how will the services be distributed? Where will the parking go? How will you distribute compensatory afforestation and other initiatives in such a small area?
Old Goa desperately needs a plan, villagers have been demanding a master-plan for many years, the Master Plan could be developed through a PDA too, but the upcoming ODP for Old Goa will not be that plan, as it appears to be nothing more than a means to grant a few plots along the highway a higher FAR. There is no problem with granting additional height and buildable area to sites along major routes, development is important. However, a plan needs to attain equilibrium, without balancing the increased density anywhere else in the settlement, this ODP will lead to disaster.
