FRIDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2023
Team Herald
Calangute: Norma Alvares of Goa Foundation has flayed the Parra village panchayat for failing to provide details of an allegedly illegal construction project in a no-development zone.
“When there is a project which is causing problems to the village, how can the panchayat not discuss it in the gram sabha?” Adv Norma Alvares said when Parra panchayat members were unable to provide the details of a multi-flat project on no-development slope of survey no 215/14 located in BokyachiArradi ward which Alvares claimed violates provisions of the Goa Building Regulations and Regional Plan.
She was speaking during a gram sabha of the Parra village panchayat on Sunday during which she and her husband Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation said the Town and Country Planning Department is illegally granting approval to construction and development projects in Parra based on the Outline Development Plan (ODP) which has been denotified. Both are Parra residents.
“Is the ODP or the Regional Plan in force? Panchayat may explain to the gram sabha, as this has important implications for development projects and their approvals in the village,” Alvares said, wondering under which law development proposals were being approved in the village.
Norma Alvares said since Parra village was withdrawn from the planning area then the ODP cannot survive, adding that while the government withdrew Parra from the ambit of the NGPDA, the TCP department issued a circular to grant technical approval as per the ODP. “When the planning area is withdrawn, how can ODP be kept alive? We have challenged the order of the TCP,” Alvares said.
Parra deputy sarpanch Daniel Lobo, who was presiding over the meet, said though the villages of Parra and Arpora-Nagoa were denotified as planning areas more than a year ago, the government was still following the ODP to approve development projects in the village.
“The TCP is approving development projects in the village as per the Outline Development Plan,” Lobo said.
Alvares also said all development projects must be undertaken in line with a duly approved village development plan which is to be formulated based on ward level committee plans which was yet to be done in Parra and questioned why this has been delayed.
Villagers also asked the panchayat to write to the TCP department not to approve projects with individual swimming pools in Parra as the village was facing water problems.
“Write to the TCP department not to approve projects with individual swimming pools. This is wrong for Goa. Send a letter to the TCP that we do not want multiple swimming pools,” Norma Alvares said.
