TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: Fed up with the government’s inaction and its failure to draw up the guidelines, the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) has decided to form its own technical committee to draw up its set of guidelines for the rectification of the plan that it will submit to the government.
Addressing the media, Convenor of the GBA Sabina Martins said that they had time and again stressed the need for drawing up guidelines for rectification of the plan and had even sought an appointment with the chief minister. Neither did they get an appointment, nor have any guidelines been put in place, she said
“We have had two days of consultations and have decided to draw up guidelines. If we get an appointment with the chief minister we will submit them to him and if not, we will make them public through a press conference and further the option of submitting it to the chief minister’s office is also there,” Martins said.
They have however demanded that the guidelines be published and that the final guidelines should be “transparent” and as per the guidelines of the Task Force Policy when it seeks to open and rectify the plan.
Disclosing as to what the guidelines would be like, Martins said that they have demanded that in those villages where the plan prepared by the village level committee was not the one submitted to the TCP, the cases be taken on case to case basis and the process started afresh.
They also demanded facilitation centre for villages and groups to easily acquire information and submit their say based on guidelines, proper definition of a “mega project”, a definition of a developmental index for each village, finalization of missing data such a forest areas identified by committees and other issues.
In the meantime, the GBA has demanded that all permissions given in eco-sensitive zones, permissions for projects and mega projects should be suspended, except for single dwelling homes, until the RP2021 is rectified, no permissions be given on basis of proposed roads, prompt action against violations and that the budget decision to grant 20 more FAR for starred hotels be cancelled.
“This decision cannot be arbitrarily taken outside the regional plan as it has a bearing on the villages,” Martins said.
