Team Herald
PORVORIM: A whopping 40 lakh sq metres of orchard and agriculture land has been illegally converted across the State, Minister for Town and Country Planning (TCP) Vijai Sardesai told the State Legislative Assembly as it passed the TCP amendment Bill 2017 making NOC for sale mandatory from the department for entire Goa.
The minister announced to bring Section 49 (6) of the Act of granting NOC for sale under the ambit of Time Bound Delivery of Services.
Sardesai also assured to introduce a comprehensive legislation in the Budget session to make local bodies the owners of the open spaces with retrospective effect.
Sardesai was speaking during a discussion on passing of the TCP amendment Bill 2017. “The only intention of the government to bring in this legislation is to have a planned development,” he said.
The minister informed that huge tracks of orchard and agriculture land are converted illegally thereby allowing unplanned and illegal development. “Nearly 40 lakh sq metres of orchard and agriculture land is illegally converted in the State so far. We have to stop further conversion,” he said.
Sardesai said that government will frame guidelines to give time bound clearances for sale of land within next one to two months.
In a bid to grant protection to those occupants who have already purchased the plots and converted them legally, the Minister said that government will grant them amnesty period wherein they can come up with the applications and will be considered for secularisation on case to case basis.
The House also passed the Goa Tax on Infrastructure (Amendment) Bill 2017.
