CANDOLIM: Speakers at the public awareness programme on PDA and ODP in Candolim on Monday called upon the people of Candolim to unite and raise their voice against PDA to save Goa from destruction.
Briefing the people on Candolim’s history, historian Prajal Sakhardande said, “People of Candolim need to unite to preserve Candolim as well as the whole of Goa. We need to see that PDA that is presently threatening Goa gets scrapped since we do not want our villages to be part of any Planning and Development Authority. The authorities only want to make money with PDA by naming activists as anarchists. We don’t want PDA in Goa. If it is implemented, Goa will be finished. We have to unite in large numbers and show the unity to save Goa. We want Goa to be as the people want and not as the ministers want.”
Under the banner of ‘Candolim against PDA’, activist Roshan Mathias along other social activists held the awareness programme, which was attended by Fr Savio Fernandes, Rama Kakonkar, Avinash Tavares and over 500 people from the Calangute constituency.
Addressing the gathering, Fr Savio Fernandes said, “Removing our villages out of PDA is a temporary solution to this problem. The present TCP Act should be scrapped and re-amended as it is outdated”.
Social activist Roshan Mathias said, “When the TCP Act was amended, Goa was a union territory but now this Act is outdated since Goa is no longer a union territory but a state. With the implementation of PDA, FAR will increase, which will further lead to huge buildings in the village. The land will go to builders as the locals will be forced to give up their lands and outsiders will come and settle down in Goa.”
“The authorities have not used the latest survey plan while drafting the ODP for Calangute and Candolim nor a scientific thought has been given. In the draft plan, all the water sources, agricultural, khazan land and other open spaces are notified as settlement zones and the base plan is incorrect. The regularisation of structures is also not possible since the last date to regularise unauthorised structures was March 31, 2018. However, now no authority is authorised to regularise the illegal structures,” Mathias said.
Mathias called upon the people of Candolim to unite and raise their voice out against PDA to save Goa from destruction.
By shouting the slogan, ‘amka naka, amka naka, PDA pida amka naka’, people raised their opposition to PDA and ODP in Candolim.
