SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) which spearheaded people’s agitation to formulate a comprehensive Regional Plan 2021 is poised to reignite another people’s movement, this time to oppose the government’s attempt to undo the Regional Plan piecemeal.
GBA convenor Sabina Martins said, “We will challenge these amendments in the court and will also come to the streets. We are working on it and are keeping both options open to oppose the government’s sinister designs,” she said.
Village Groups of Goa president John Philip Pereira said, “Regional Plan was prepared by professionals like renowned architect Charles Correa, former town planner Edgar Ribeiro and others who were members of the task force. They applied their expertise,” he said and questioned how politicians can prove professionals wrong?
He said that the Regional Plan was kept in abeyance and finally notified. The recent amendments have been done to help the builders’ lobby.
He said that it is being done for monetary gains. It is like a win-win situation for both politicians and builders and ultimately Goans will be losers, he said.
He said they will meet shortly to chalk out the next plan of action.
Abhijit Prabhudesai of the Federation of Rainbow Warriors said, “This time we will have a bigger movement and TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane will be taught a lesson that he will never forget. The politician only knows to abuse power.”
He alleged that the decision to make changes in the Regional Plan is an attempt to sell the scarce land of the State.
Sabina Martins laid out the immediate roadmap for GBA’s agitation. “Right now we are involved in collecting data about the Regional Plan. The plan was formulated and finalised after accepting some of the suggestions and objections by the State Level Committee. Today, there is no transparency and we are denied information sought under RTI Act, there is no criteria for planning. The last plan was prepared by academicians based on studies and research material and we want to relook at the government’s motive to change six lakh sq mts of land to settlement,” she said.
Martins said that till now the government has amended the plan as many as 11 times all at the request of individuals and private parties. The government is violating the entire process and it is surprising that the TCP Minister was part of the process while finalising the plan.”
Activist Edgar Mascarenhas from Chicalim said, “A lot of exercises were done while formulating the Regional Plan by professionals such as late Charles Correa, Edgar Ribeiro, Dean D’Cruz, Dr Oscar Rebello and other eminent personalities. The decision to make changes in the plan is not going to do any good for the State and create a negative impact on planning and the environment. We have to assess the carrying capacity of the villages, particularly infrastructure and arbitrary changes will destroy the villages. Secondly, it will also give rise to human-animal conflict.”
He said that changes if any should be done holistically.
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OPINION
Open your eyes n see this: Is this really for Goa or greed, ask people
This is what people are saying. All you have to do is to listen to what people are saying and open your eyes to see what is happening, what has happened in the recent past and what will happen if the people’s regional plan of balancing construction needs with those of protecting Goa’s natural and finite resources, is destroyed.
The activists who speak don’t speak for themselves. An honest approach will be to ask the people of Goa and see if they echo the same sentiments. And the reason is very likely to be that when the movement against the Regional Plan 2011, which sought to convert Goa into a desert of concrete on the debris of farms, hills and forests, had the people’s participation.
Above all, everyone has children and grandchildren who will be victims of the destruction that the greedy decisions of today will bring.
The call to protest and fight comes from that fear of the sufferings of the future they won’t see, but their children will endure.
