Team Herald
PANJIM: In a major relief for the villagers of Chopdem in Pernem taluka, the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Wednesday stayed permissions granted to convert the existing settlement area of 2,84,512 square metres on the Regional Plan to 6,70,888 square metres, an increase of 130 per cent by using the method of correction of “error” under Section 17 (2) of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act.
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Mayur Shetgaonkar, Sitaram Raut, Zeferino Fernandes and Shubham Sawant had filed PIL writ petition challenging the permissions granted under Section 17 (2) of TCP Act in Survey No. 17/1 (part); in Survey No. 10/1-E (part); in Survey No. 17/1 (Part) and in Survey No. 20/1–A (part) Chopdem village in Pernem Taluka.
The petitioners claimed that these permissions are illegal, ultra vires the provisions of the Goa TCP Act 1974 as well as violative of Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India as being arbitrary and unconstitutional.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioners, Adv Rohit Bras De Sa stated that these permissions entail large-scale changes to the land use map of the village.
These have added 130 per cent (3,86,376 sq mts) more than existing settlement area in the village merely within eight months from March 2024 to October 2024 and in six Gazette changes admeasuring 3,69,480 square metres thus making the existing Regional Plan 2021 of the Agarwada-Chopdem village obsolete and effectively revising the Regional Plan of the village, without public consultation and government approvals, under the guise of correction of inadvertent/incoherent/inconsistent errors in the RP 2021. Conversion of No Development Slope (NDS), natural cover, command areas and orchard to settlement has been conveniently carried out under the guise of correction under Section 17 (2) of the TCP Act, they said.
The existing population of the Chopdem village is less than 1,000 people and such large scale addition to settlement areas in the small village is beyond imagination and absurd. The entire characteristics of the Regional Plan of the village stands altered resulting in making it obsolete by these illegal and unconstitutional notifications. The permanent and long-lasting damage will be caused to the ecosystem, environment and demography of the village.
Stating that leopards were sighted in the village, they said that converting the natural cover and eco-sensitive zones of the village into settlement will be further detrimental to the near extinct wildcat, a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The petitioners alleged that changes in zones have been made entirely for private interest. The entire process appears to be based on “one pays and gets the desired zones”, they mentioned.
In one case, the petitioners stated that total of 1,92,955 sq mts of area of total 2,64,197 sq mts of land Survey No. 17/1 was converted to settlement in three instalments largely comprising of part orchard, part Command Area, part natural cover, part natural cover with NDS, part orchard with NDS, part Command Area with NDS and Disaster Management Site marked.
The information obtained under Right To Information (RTI) Act mentioned that the Expert Committee recommended the application submitted by Bengaluru-based Brahm Agro terra projects Ltd for correction without evaluating the contour plans of the area, without report from forest, without site inspection and without even engineer’s report being available for them to make the decision.
But the minutes of meeting provided in the Legislative Assembly to an unstarred question on July 18, 2024, clearly showed that the Expert Committee had deferred the decision since the application does not consist of a professional report and also the site is not inspected. This exposes the blatant manipulations and corruption being done by the TCP Department while handling application under Section 17(2) of TCP Act, the petitioners stated.
