PANJIM: Goa Bachao Abhiyan has urged Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai to withhold assent to all amendments to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act being passed by the Goa Assembly at a fast pace.
A delegation of GBA met the Governor and apprised him of the planning issues plaguing the State. The GBA members sought the intervention of the Governor to oversee the implementation of the Constitutional mandate for planning as per section 243 ZD.
GBA Convenor Sabina Martins informed that the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Constitution give power to the people at the village panchayats and municipal councils to make plans, which are then sent to the District Planning Committees to prepare District Plans.
“To implement the process of participatory planning, the government has to undertake correction of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act where the powers for ‘Spatial planning’ as in the Constitution have been substituted with special planning’. The word special planning is not defined,” the delegationinformed the Governor.
The GBA brought to the notice of the Governor various amendments made to the Town and Country Planning Act like 16B, 17(2), 39A, and IPB Act, which it said, was contrary to the participatory planning process. “These amendments had resulted in massive destruction of eco-sensitive zones and the negative fallouts faced by people like flooding and landslides to cite a few,” Martins stated.
She further said that even the GBA was celebrating the victory of the people for getting the TCP (Amendment and Validation) Bill 2024,withdrawn, however, it was short-lived as the government introduced the IPB Bill and the Comunidades Bill.
