However much as this government tries to sidestep its responsibility, commitment and promise of de-notifying the Regional Plan and introducing a fresh one, Herald will go on pursuing this till the very end. A part of our job is to ensure that our foot is never taken off the pedal on issues that mean so much to Goa.
The last we heard from the Chief Minister on the Regional Plan was the announcement of a formation of a House Committee which would start functioning by September 15. September 15 has come and gone, unless the year was open ended. Then we have time till September 2015. But sarcasm apart, the fundamentals of the way the government is functioning needs to be underscored repeatedly, to the point of not boredom but irritation and frustration. This government can take on anything but it cannot tolerate reminders of missed promises and deadlines. The moment the press crosses that line, its understanding, ethics, capability to grasp issues or sensitivity in understanding the government’s compulsions, is called to question.
Therefore once we are done with it, let’s move on to what the issue really is. The creation of the Regional Plan is a part of the delegated legislative process, where the authority to create the Regional Plan flows from the Town and Country Planning Act. The domain for this has to be the executive and not the legislature. Sending it to the legislature is an unwarranted cop out. We will still hold the Chief Minister to account because he has chosen to push the creation of a Regional Plan on the backburner by announcing a committee which he has promised to create and will willingly pass this on from Assembly session to session, till he wears out the voices that demand the call to action. We will continue to report on how exactly he is doing this.
Each of the creations of the previous Congress government – the Task Force and the State Level Committee- as tools to facilitate a participative Regional Plan, were given birth by the executive through notification. There is also another line of argument that, that these very important committees (The Task Force and the State Level committee) which allowed professional non government participation should be a part of the TCP Act and not creations of the Executive. There is merit in this argument, because it makes procedure supreme over government concessions.
The underlying spirit of the planning process is devolution of powers under the 73rd and 74th Amendment. This devolution is not institutionalised in the TCP Act. From time to time this has become a promise- almost a largess- granted by Chief Ministers, that the plan will be sent to gram sabhas and panchayats. This should not be a matter of choice but of compulsion.
The current act is clearly incomplete. As a part of a holistic legislation, urban areas have to be brought into the ambit of land planning. Then, of the 13 municipal areas, barring the main towns, there are other municipal areas that come under the Regional Plan but since they do not have panchayats, there is no provision for plans of those areas to be debated. And when the word “provision” is used, it should be something that is etched in stone legally, not a subjective matter of debate which hinges around the Chief Minister’s take or decision as and when he chooses to.
It is imperative that the formation of a Regional Plan should not be matter of a Chief Minister’s subjective judgment (or whim) but a part of an act which leaves no scope of manipulation and delay, both of which are happening now. Participatory planning has to be part of the legal framework and not be hostage to the “pleasure” the Chief Executive of the state.
