Govt decides to terminate controversial Section 16B of TCP Act

Team Herald

PANJIM: In yet another major decision, the State government has decided to scrap close to 7,000 applications that were granted either final or provisional approvals for zone change under the controversial Section 16B of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act with immediate effect.

The TCP Act was amended in 2018 to add Section 16B and it became a huge source of controversy with NGOs and political opponents terming it a scam. The amendments were challenged in the Bombay High Court at Goa.

Speaking to media persons, TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane said that decision has been taken to scrap all the cases approved under Section 16B. “An affidavit in this regard will be filed in the High Court. There will be no case of 16B valid as on today,” he said.

The Minister said that government will seek permission from the Court to reoperationalize the 16B on case to case basis. “Even if the permission is not granted no issue…we won’t press for it,” he said.

Rane, during his first TCP board meeting held under his chairmanship on April 18, resolved to review all the proposals that got consent under Section 16B.

NGO Goa Foundation and Goa Bachao Abhiyan had in November 2018 moved High Court with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for quashing and setting aside provisions of law (Section 16B of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act and proviso to Regulation 6.1.1 (d) of the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010) that seek to allow ad-hoc and arbitrary conversions of privately-owned plots in the Regional Plan based on individual applications from such zone changes. 

In November 2019, the State Government had assured High Court at Goa that no final approvals would be granted to new proposals till the court passes final orders. Accordingly, the government went ahead with provisional approvals. Before that, nearly 250 applications had received final approvals.

Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, who introduced the controversial Section 16B to the Act during his tenure as TCP minister, too had been demanding that the amendment be scrapped alleging that several zone changes are permitted from orchard to settlement.

The Opposition, who had termed the amendment as a major scam, have been demanding setting up Special Investigating Team (SIT) to investigate all the land conversions that were approved under the controversial Section.