MARGAO: Goans for Goa (GFG) has posed three “vital” questions to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department with regards to the Regional Plan 2021 (RP21) as it suspects that if the plan is approved under the existing conditions, it would open the floodgates for massive construction activity in Goa, turning it into a concrete jungle.
“We had asked the questions under Right to Information, but so far there seems to be no answer from the TCP,” said GFG President Kennedy Afonso, who demanded the answers in writing.
Explaining the basis for the questions, he stated that according to the statistics in the RP documents prepared by the TCP, ECO 1 has a land area of 54.06 percent, while ECO 2 has an area of 26.29 percent. If both were added up, a total of 80 percent of land is under conservation/regulations, and hence cannot be brought under settlement zones; only 20 percent of land could be converted into settlement zones.
However, where does it say how much land was under the settlement zones in the earlier RP, and how much land is now brought under the proposed settlement zones in the RP21? It only says 50 percent more land was brought under settlement zones in the RP21.
The three questions of GFG are: 1. Out of the 20 percent of land remaining after taking 80 percent of land for ECO 1 and 2, what was the percentage of land converted into settlement zones in the earlier RP plan.
2. Out of this 20 percent of land, what is the proposed percentage of land to be converted into settlement zones in the RP21?
3. Assuming the RP21 is approved, out of this 20 percent, what is the percentage of land remaining for future conversion into settlement zones?
“These questions are vital as we suspect that if the RP21 is approved under the existing conditions, it will open the flood gates for massive construction activity in Goa, turning it into a concrete jungle,” said Kennedy.
He added, “GFG demands answers as the people of Goa have the right to know about these statistics, which are cleverly omitted from the RP21 documents for reasons best known to the TCP officials. Otherwise the government must denotify the RP21, as it is a scam dumped on the people to satisfy the greed of builders and politicians of Goa.”
