Team Herald
PANJIM: The crucial hearing in the petition filed by the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) challenging the notification of the Outline Development Plan (ODP) 2021 for Panjim will be heard by the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday.
The Court on February 9 had issued notice to the State government, North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA), Town and Country Planning (TCP) and CCP Commissioner seeking their reply in two weeks.
The writ petition filed by Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado and Deputy Mayor Lata Parekh, along with 14 councillors from the ruling panel, prays for quashing of the ‘impugned notification’ dated December 27, 2016 that notified the Panjim ODP alleging that the plan is not in public interest.
“The entire exercise appears to be an exercise meant to give benefit and distribute benefit to few individuals and favour them on the eve of elections of the Legislative Assembly, held on February 4, as the chairman of the so-called committee appointed by NGPDA is the MLA of Panjim.
And the decision to notify the ODP on the eve of declaration of State Assembly election at the fag end of the term of the present government in power, justifies and makes obvious the short circuiting of law to get a plan notified in purported pursuance of the provision of Section 39 of TCP Act,” the petition reads.
