From regional plans to real estate profits: The quiet takeover of Goa’s land

Goa Bachao Abhiyan demanded the revocation of the Regional Plan 2011, involving people in participatory planning at the village level and notifying a new plan. The movement will complete 20 years in 2026 - but, alas, the demands and the problems faced by the people remain the same

Goa is in the eye of a big second-home whirlwind that is threatening the very ethos of the State. Every rich and weary Indian wants a piece of the State, which makes up a meagre 0.11 per cent of the country’s landmass. Goa is not being accepted as it is; it is being shaped the way capitalists want it to be.

Ever since the Regional Plan (RP) 2011 was formulated, it met with extreme criticism and rejection. However, Planning & Development Authorities (PDAs) proliferated, and Sections 16, 17(B), and 39(A) of the TCP Act, 1974, keep being amended to bring in RP 2011 through the back door. The amendments have helped realtors and speculators bypass all the authorities and local self-governments, leaving Goans at the receiving end.

One of the biggest movements that started in 2006 against RP 2011 was GBA.

The movement managed to achieve what it demanded. However, not many knew that the same problems were going to make a backdoor entry.

Later in 2008, the village of Carmona started a long fight against mega projects, which was one of the first in the State, in a way lighting a fire through protests against a 618-apartment project in their village by Raheja Developers. The villagers managed to oust the project from the village after 15 years of street and court battles.

However, even after 17 years, the fights of the villagers remain similar.

But this time, the enemy is much better equipped, as the people have found no support from the government. Similar protests have started in yet another movement recently in Savarfond, Sancoale, after the Village Panchayat granted permission for a 700-villa and 700-swimming pool mega project. Placed on a visibly steep hillside with a gradient that does not even allow a person to stand properly, the geography and the locality of the project have become a major flashpoint for protests.

The protests that had cooled down for a while are now on the verge of reigniting as the developer has started the exercise of soil testing, which is a primary requirement to obtain Technical Clearance for any project.

Locals fear that, with a court order protecting the developer’s interest and a government that is not interested in protecting the interests of locals, Bhutani may try to steamroll local concerns and proceed with the project.

Even though a Public Interest Litigation is pending in the High Court against the project, the developers have dared to go ahead. Locals have long complained that despite knowing that M-Tech, a real estate company attempting to develop this very land, was pushed out of the village through protests, Bhutani has dared to step in—something that cannot happen without the patronage of the government.

The same happened with the Reis Magos hill. Once a lush green hill turned brown due to excavation and has now become a concrete jungle.

President of the Goa Panchayati Raj Institutions Union (GoaPRIU), J. Santano Rodrigues, said, “All the development that is being done in the form of roads and other public infrastructure is being built to allow commercial and capitalist interests into the villages.” Rodrigues stated that the interests of villagers have now taken a back seat, while planning is being done for the capitalists.

Rodrigues, while expressing the need for a proper Regional Plan, said that the piecemeal approach of the government in planning is proving to be the main culprit behind the state slowly losing its identity.

REGIONAL PLANNING: WHY IS IT BEING BYPASSED?

According to expert planners, Regional Planning has been tried and tested in Goa, while other States are just beginning to implement it.

Goa is actually the most unique state in India, as it was the first to have a land use policy and land use plan, which was prepared in 1986. Goa was the only independent state after Delhi to have prepared the Regional Plan 2001 in 1986.

To this day, the State boasts of being one of only three in the country to be completely covered by planning. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu have tried to extend land use policies to rural areas but have faced significant hurdles. However, Goa has a land use planning system on paper that extends not just to towns but also to village levels.

Tahir Noronha, an urban planner who is currently helping the city of Detroit in Michigan, USA, with planning, formulating regulations, and permits, is also the convenor of the Charles Correa Foundation. He said, “From 1991 to 2024, the government has been extending and revising the ODP of Panjim, and in no city or town of Goa has a CDP been formulated. This is the scenario in Goa, where there is no study, no estimation, and no justification—everything is being done based on a need for faster growth. There is a suspicious and malafide intent to exploit the ODP provisions that lack the requirement of study, allowing for rapid development,” he explained.

Activist Swapnesh Sherlekar, a strong voice against the conversion of land in Goa, said, “By granting changes of zone to large amounts of ecologically sensitive areas, particularly paddy fields, natural cover, and no-development slopes, the message appears to be very clear: this government is out to do its business of real estate, and now the responsibility of protecting the environment and local interests has been shifted onto Goans.”

NO CONSIDERATION FOR LOCAL NEEDS

The Bhutani project is a classic example of how real estate lobbies have been planning a backdoor entry by ignoring the wants of villages. ODPs have to be centric and synonymous to the needs of the local population.

Converting land zones was envisaged for the original dwellers of the State and the plans were prepared with the projection of what they would require in the next decade or two. However, Goa is seeing a riot of conversions that are happening for real estate and second home constructions .

Permissions and clearances are being given without any consideration to locals or local self-governments like Panchayats and Municipalities. Proposals of conversion and land use changes that must be done with the consultation of local public, gram sabhas, Village Development Committees (VDC) are being done at the top level and are being forced on to the villagers and village panchayats.

Sources have informed that a large 2,500-apartment project in Mormugao has not obtained occupancy or been able to sell its flats, as the project has insufficient water supply.

“Under the garb of providing water to locals, the government is laying big pipelines in Mormugao to supply water to these projects,” alleged Narayan Naik.

J. Santano Rodrigues highlighted that capitalist interests have crept into local self-governments.