PANJIM: The Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) has denounced the hurried introduction of yet another dubious amendment to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act stating that insertion of Section 39A, is to allow backdoor entry for conversion of Goa’s lands for private and business interests. The clause of public interest has been removed.
The High Court Order dated February 14, 2024, had exposed the mass conversions at the behest of politicians through patently illegal action on the defunct Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of Calangute-Candolim, Parra-Arpora and Nagoa villages.
It noted that planning of ODPs flows from the Master Regional Plan in force and that the Chief Town Planner Rajesh Naik’s actions went beyond his jurisdiction, turning eco-zones under the Regional Plan 2021 into settlement on the basis of circulars and internal communications.
The GBA has welcomed the High Court order staying such illegal actions, adding that the GBA had always advocated the requirement that all plans must follow the Regional Plan in force.
The GBA has observed that approximately seven crore square metres of land that fraudulently appeared in the scrapped Regional Plan 2011 keeps coming back through various cut-paste measures. Multiple amendments to the TCP Act such as 16b, 17(2) and now 39A, including arbitrary tweaking of built-up areas in various by-laws and building codes seek to do this by converting eco-zones to settlement.
GBA convenor Sabina Martins said that the law department seems incapable of advising the government forcing hapless citizens to move through courts at great expense. The GBA denounced the wastage of public money and use of the TCP department to align with introduction and withdrawal of ill-founded amendments every few years.
Martins said that Amendment 16b was withdrawn, but 17(2) and now 39A continue to serve high net-worth individuals and real estate interests as can be seen from the names of the applicants.
The GBA has called upon the public to oppose section 39A and demanded that officers exposed of corruption be relieved of duty and punished with immediate effect. Both actions are required to bring back confidence of law and order, for protection of Goa’s fragile lands and sustainable future for her people, Martins said.
