PANJIM: In a complete turnaround on the issue, the Laxmikant Parsekar government is now planning to notify the Regional Plan 2021 (RP21) in “one go” by September 30, this year. The government has set aside its earlier move to notify the plan in a phased manner and its election campaign promise of scrapping the plan.
This crucial decision was taken after consultations with BJP legislators, during a recent meeting. The government has also decided to keep the land plan open for the ruling and opposition MLAs, before finalizing it.
Reiterating that the government will not scrap the RP 21, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, who holds the Town and Country Planning (TCP) portfolio, said, “If everything goes as planned, we will notify the RP in one go September 30.”
Speaking to Herald, D’Souza said that of the objections received from 174 village panchayats, only 10 percent were of a serious nature while the balance 90 percent are individual/personal objections. “I have gone through the objections raised and have observed that a majority are at a personal level. Government cannot consider them as serious. But in the next three months all the objections will be settled,” he said.
“I will not be able to satisfy everyone, but if I am able to satisfy 60-70 percent of the population of Goa then I am happy,” he said. “A majority of the people who are now raising concerns about the Regional Plan do not want it to happen,” the deputy chief minister added.
Asked the reason for the sudden decision to notify the RP in one go, D’Souza pointed out that the land plan was earlier notified in a phased manner by the previous government (Congress) and considering that there were no major objections, the government feels that the plan can be notified in toto.
“If one feels that by notifying the existing plan I am doing something wrong, then they are free to approach the court,” he said, adding, “Within the next three months, all the objections will be settled and the plan will be notified.”
D’Souza said that the plan would be kept open, if required, to ruling as well as opposition MLAs, who would be consulted before finalizing the plan. “The consultation with BJP MLAs has been held . Soon I would be having meetings with other ruling MLAs and then the opposition,” he said.
In its 2012 assembly poll manifesto, the BJP had promised that RP 2021, notified by the then Congress government, would be scrapped and a new plan taking all the stakeholders into confidence would be drafted. While certain sections are in favour of notifying the existing plan, there are also demands that the plan be scrapped. Even the opposition Congress stands divided on the issue.
