CALANGUTE: A resolution to file a writ petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa for the withdrawal of the new draft outline development plan (ODP) 2025 for Calangute along with another resolution stating that the people of Calangute want the ODP rejected were unanimously adopted at an extraordinary gram sabha of the Calangute Panchayat, on Sunday.
Making a presentation, Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) President Premanand Divkar said huge tracts of land in the eco-sensitive zones atop the Baga hill have been marked as settlement and said if constructions are allowed there, there is a possibility of the hill coming down as has happened in recent days in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
He said the entire ODP has been drafted without ‘consultations with the people’. “This is not in the interest of the village but in the interest of all the people preparing this plan. What is more important is the environment of your village. The utmost care has to be taken while planning,” Divkar said.
Other speakers at the gram sabha said most of the suggestions and objections made by locals during the drafting of the plan for Calangute have been ignored. Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said the villagers could still write to the panchayat with their suggestions and objections which would be forwarded to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department.
CCF members also urged the sarpanch to stop the ODP from being implemented. “The ODP needs to be kept on hold by the TCP Department because it is not in the interest of the people. The sarpanch should immediately write to the TCP Department and other authorities stating our objections to the ODP and that it should not be notified,” speakers said.
Taking note of the people’s sentiments, Calangute Panchayat Secretary Arjun Velip said, “We’ve had a good discussion on the ODP and it is clear that the ODP is not proper. We will convey to the government; that the people of Calangute want this ODP rejected.”
