Team Herald
VASCO: Questioning the intention behind the decision taken by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vijai Sardesai who recently announced that the Outline Development Plan (ODP) would be scrapped for Vasco planning area-2026 along with other ODPs, Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha on Thursday said that the decision was incorrect and the government should rethink on it.
“As rightly said by Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida, even I feel that the decision to scrap Vasco ODP is incorrect. I personally know how much painstaking effort we had to put in to get some of the new roads included in the ODP. We personally went for site inspections with government officers, land owners and people, took their suggestions and after following all procedures the draft ODP was finalized, but now the same is being scrapped. Why? We have no clue,” Saldanha said.
“What about all the efforts that had been put in for preparing the ODP. I think this is not right at all. I would like to know the reasons for scrapping the ODP,” she said.
Saldanha informed that after ODP for Vasco planning area was approved, many project plans were passed by the Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA).
Explaining why the scrapping of the ODP was a wrong decision, Saldanha said, “Based on the approval, people had even started with the preparations of their project. Sometime the preparation is not just on the ground but also happens on paper and it also costs money because the plans are prepared on paper first and if ODP is scrapped then all these people will have to face losses for no fault of theirs.”
She contended that if there were valid reasons to scrap the ODP, then, the public representatives should have been told about it. “But I am sorry to say the issue was not even discussed with us,” she said.
