Team Herald
PANJIM: After Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane claimed that no permission was granted to anyone for hill cutting across the State during the last six months, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday ‘clarified’ that the TCP Department and the Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board (IPB) grant permission to projects and that no separate permissions are given hill cutting.
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Claiming that the TCP department had not granted any permissions and that there was no question of giving any fresh permissions, Rane had stated that it was the responsibility of other government departments to act accordingly to prevent illegal hill cutting.
In response to this remark, Sawant said, “The project proponents obtain all the permissions, including conversions and construction licence, from TCP Department and the IPB. No separate permission is given for project development.”
Stating that the Chief Minister and the TCP Minister were passing the buck, activist Swapnesh Sherlekar said that there is a procedure to give permission for hill cutting but nobody was applying for it because there is real estate business and brokers in the State. No proper system is followed.
Citing a technical clearance order issued to one of the development projects, he said that as per Condition No. 11, it was clear that in case of any cutting of sloppy land or filling of low-lying land, beyond permissible limits, prior permission of the Chief Town Planner (CTP) should be obtained before the commencement of the works per the provisions of Section 17 (A) of Goa TCP Act, 1974.
“As per Section 17 (A), hilly land or sloppy land means and includes any land having a gradient of 1:10 or more. Similarly low-laying means and includes any land below 50 cms or more than from the adjoining ground level,” Sherlekar said.
He also flayed the government for making Talathis from the Revenue department responsible for hill cutting in his/her respective jurisdiction.
“There are women Talathi and they will be unable to go to check sloppy land and hill cuttings. It is in the TCP domain and the same department has to be responsible for hill cutting,” he said, demanding that the flying squad has to be activated.
Sherlekar demanded that the government should make development potential zero and ensure that there will be no more hill cuttings and filling of low lying areas. If it is done then for next 50 years, no real estate will dare to indulge in hill cutting.
