PANJIM: The State’s move to seek NITI Aayog’s help to prepare new RP 2041 is contrary to former Chief Planner of Government of India Edgar Ribeiro’s tenor of a plan which he had put forth with the government.
Ribeiro, the hero of the people’s Regional Plan, has written to the TCP in September in the backdrop of the hastily introduced (then scrapped) Land Development and Building Construction Regulations. He had made three important points in that letter.
Update the Regional Plan at least till 2031, avoid any top-down approach.
Take gram sabhas and stakeholders in and incorporate local area plans.
Stating that the consultants should not be involved in this exercise because they are project-driven, he said, “The TCP officials should do the plan because they are competent and I have seen them at the time of drafting RP 2021 as they were part of it. The TCP officials can do the plan because data is available and base maps are perfect.”
According to Ribeiro, what is missing is the local area plans. The municipal and village panchayat wards have to be identified and prepare the plan. It can be updated every five years and as and when required, he added.
Ribeiro said too many amendments lead to a lot of confusion on how the land can be used and with what intensity.
Describing the way forward, he said, “We have to update the Regional Plan at least till 2031, and Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department officials rather than consultants should drive the plan since they are capable.”
Instead of a top-down approach, he called for taking stakeholders and gram panchayats into confidence.
He suggested the incorporation of local area plans which will emerge from the wards of the village panchayats and the municipalities.
Ribeiro said, “The most important thing is we have to continue action at two levels — one updating Regional Plan because it is static and not go beyond 2021. It needs a proper frame and the time has come to extend the frame and citizens have proposed that the frame should be up to 2031.”
State seeks NITI Aayog’s help to prepare new RP 2041
SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Nearly over a decade after keeping the Goa Regional Plan 2021 in abeyance due to public protest, the Goa Government has now sought help from NITI Aayog to prepare the new plan- RP 2041- with 20 years perspective.
In its report, the government has urged Aayog to support the Department of Town and Country Planning (TCP) to prepare and notify a new Regional Plan for the State with 20 years perspective.
The government has also sought support from Aayog to prepare village level and municipal levels Settlement Plans which are outside the purview of Planning and Development Authorities (PDAs), as per priority. The plans also need to be linked with Survey Plan of the State for public purpose development.
In June 2012, then BJP government led by former Chief Minister (late) Manohar Parrikar had frozen the RP-2021under public pressure promising to draft a new plan which never materialised. The plan, however, was not denotified.
In March, 2018, the State government revived RP21 allowing constructions in settlement, commercial areas while prohibiting it in eco-sensitive zones, khazan lands, and other restricted areas.
The RP 2021, which was notified in phase manner from 2008-2011, faced mass opposition and protest from across section as they feared that the RP would unleash unbridled construction activity damaging the fragile ecology of the coastal State.
Over 8,500 individual comments were received in addition to the comments/inputs from 176 Village Panchayats out of 188 and 8 out of 9 Municipal Councils, majority of them demanding scrapping of the plan.
In a recent statement, the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) demanded that the preparation of the new Regional Plan with new perspectives should begin in real earnest. The GBA hoped that the government will ensure the participation of people in planning as the first step for the pro-common people and pro-Goa Regional Plan.
