Guidelines on words like erroneous, inadvertent, inconsistent & incoherent missing in Sec 17(2) of TCP Act: PIL in HC

Team Herald

PANJIM: The final hearing in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the validity of the Section 17 (2) of the Town and Country Planning Act, started on Tuesday before the High Court.

Petitioner Goa Foundation, while placing it’s submissions before the HC, said that there are no guidelines explaining what the words “erroneous, inadvertent, inconsistent and incoherent” in the Section 17(2) of the Town & Country Planning Act mean.

Adv Norma Alvares, representing the petitioner, further said that the changes introduced to the Act are bound to create chaos and anarchy. She also mentioned that the land under question is in fact more than 9 crore sq mtrs, which is spread across Goa.

The final hearings on the two petitions of Pravinsingh Shedgaonkar of Betim and Goa Foundations will be held for the next few days.

The petitioners have prayed to set aside the newly added section 17 (2) of TCP Act and to strike down the alternations and modifications made in the Regional Plan for rectifying errors and correction of inconsistent/incoherent zoning proposals Rules 2023.

The writ petitions challenging Section 17 (2) of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act, allowing conversion of lands from orchard and other zones to settlement on grounds of errors in the Regional Plan were filed by several individuals earlier in 2023. The hearings will continue on Wednesday.

On the eve of Statehood day last year, public-spirited Goans decided to challenge before the High Court the State government’s decision to amend 17 (2) of the TCP Act, to convert land to settle in the Regional Plan.

The Section 17 (2) of the TCP Act does not provide for any public consultation before the government makes any changes in the Regional Plan, activists state.

Three activists Pravinsingh Shedgaonkar of Betim, Mayur Shetgaonkar of Morjim and Swapnesh Sherlekar of Bicholim along with Goa Foundation, filed an amended PIL writ petition before the High Court of Bombay at Goa praying to strike down Section 17 and sub-section 2 of Goa TCP Act, 1974.

They also prayed to strike down the alternations and modifications made in the Regional Plan for rectifying errors and correction of inconsistent/incoherent zoning proposals Rules 2023.

The petitioners prayed that the Chief Town Planner (CTP) be directed to immediately inspect the properties at Morjim where huge strata of land has been converted from Orchard to Settlement and to submit the report to the Court.

They stated that despite their complaints to the government to remove the illegal road and to initiate action as per law, the government authorities granted permissions for construction of farmhouses considering the illegality-constructed road as the right to way for those project sites.

According to the petitioners, M/s Gangareddy Infra Pvt Ltd and Konidela Ramcharan Tej made applications to the TCP department on Mach 27, 2023 under Section 17 sub-section 2 of TCP Act for correction of inconsistent/incoherent zoning provisions in the Regional Plan 2021 in respect of land admeasuring 13,964 sq mt under survey number 245, sub-division number 8 at Morjim.

By an order dated April 19, 2023, issued by the CTP (Planning) in the planning zone of a part of the property bearing survey no 245/8 of Morjim, land admeasuring 12,746 sq mt, which was earmarked as Orchard zone was corrected to Settlement zone.Again on March 23, 2023, M/s Gangareddy Infra Pvt Ltd applied to the TCP under section 17 under sub-section 2 of the TCP Act for correction of inconsistent/incoherent zoning for plot admeasuring 7,479 sq mt surveyed under survey no. 238 sub-division no. 10 of Morjim.

By an order dated April 19, 2023, the CTP (Planning) changed the land to a Settlement zone which was earlier earmarked as an Orchard zone.

By another application on March 27, 2023, to TCP under section 17 sub-section 2 of the TCP Act, for correction of inconsistent/incoherent zoning provisions in the RP for 17,569 sq mt of land surveyed under survey no 245 sub-division 1 of Morjim, the CTP by an order dated April 19, 2023, changed the Orchard zone to Settlement zone.

In another application by Konidela Ramcharan Tej, the CTP allowed to change of 4,337 sq mt of land situated in survey no. 245 sub-division no. 4 of Morjim, from Orchard zone to Settlement zone and again changed 3,486 sq mt of land in survey no 245 sub-division no. 5 at Morjim, from Orchard zone to Settlement zone.

In another application by M/s Gangareddy Infra Pvt Ltd on April 13, 2023, for correction of error as regards to the existing road which was not reflected on RP passing through the properties bearing survey nos. 253/24, 247/3, 6/1, 7/1, 246/2, 246/1 and 244/0 of Morjim, the Chief Town Planner (Planning) depicted the road having a right of way of six metres through the above survey numbers.

The petitioners have stated these errors were made on the directions of the government and on the basis of some reports submitted by the TCP department along with a report from a registered professional architect Sarvesh Naik.

The petitioners have further stated that the above survey numbers are hilly areas and a plateau with a large number of trees and there are no existing houses and that in the RP, these lands were rightly classified as Orchard zones.

The six-metre road shown also passes partly through a tenanted paddy field in survey no, 6/2 and no development slope survey no 246/1A and both the survey numbers are not mentioned in the order issued by the CTP.

They have alleged that the changes have been allowed without any application of mind and only at the behest of the private developers for their commercial benefit and to enable them to develop the properties and regularise the illegal road which M/s Prasanna Developers Pvt Ltd and M/s Ahadh Engineering Construction have built.

The petitioners argued that Section 17 (2) of the TCP Act does not provide for any public consultation before the government affects any changes in the Regional Plan to correct any so-called inconsistent/incoherent zoning proposals or inadvertent errors in RP such public consultations ought to have been provided.

Section 17 (2) gives unbridled powers to the Chief Town Planner and the government to make changes to the Regional Plan under the guise of correcting errors and inconsistent zoning proposals in the RP.

This is arbitrary and irrational and will set at naught the entire process of preparing the RP which was prepared painstakingly by the Task Force constituted by the government, comprising well-known experts in the field of planning.

Permitting the government to make changes in the RP at the stroke of a pen will be disastrous for planning in the State and defeat the purpose of having an RP. These changes have been done only to suit private interests.

The petitioners stated that such an arbitrary conversion would lead to rampant and unbalanced development in the State of Goa and therefore it would be contrary to the interests of the citizens and is incompatible with the ecological requirements and resources of the State. They have prayed that the order issued by the CTP dated April 19, 2023, be quashed and set aside.