Team Herald

PANJIM: The State government on Monday decided to withdraw the controversial Section 16B of Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act.

The State government will now file an affidavit before the High Court of Bombay at Goa informing about the cancellation of all the approvals granted as per Section 16B by the TCP department.

NGO Goa Foundation and the Goa Bachao Abhiyan had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the High Court seeking to set aside Section 16B stating that it was allowing ad-hoc and arbitrary conversions of private plots in the Regional Plan based on individual applications for zone changes.

During the hearing in November 2019, the High Court had said that permission granted by the TCP under 16B would be subject to the final outcome of the PIL. But the government told the Court that it will not give any approvals to new applications and wait for the High Court to decide on the legality.

Goa Foundation Director Claude Alvares welcomed the government’s decision to scrape both, the 17 amendments to the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations and Section 16B of the TCP Act.

Alvares said, “We congratulate TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane for respecting the sentiments of the people. He took a wise decision after he saw that the people were upset over these amendments. The Minister came to the conclusion that the amendments were not in the best interest of planning and Regional Plan.” Goa Foundation Director Claude Alvares

Goa TMC Media Coordinator Trajano D’Mello said, “The decision to scrap the TCP amendments is a victory of every Goemkar. TCP Minister claiming that the 16B Amendment will also be scrapped is welcomed. And a great blow to the ‘legacy proposers’. The decisions are a clear indication that amendments by this government are made without proper study and create distrust among investors which affect the economic development and growth of our state. These decisions are an admission of poor administration.”