VASCO: The Sancoale gram sabha has unanimously resolved to ask the government to re-include the village panchayat in the jurisdiction of the Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) as the villagers are not getting any benefit from being under the Town and Country Planning (TCP) jurisdiction. Several other crucial resolutions on issues like the Regional Plan (RP21), private forests and mobile towers were taken at the meeting on Sunday.
At the onset, villager Ganesh Naik questioned the panchayat as to what decision had been taken on the RP21 issue and why there was no clarity on the matter. He said that since the State authorities had removed Sancoale from the MPDA’s jurisdiction and included it in TCP’s jurisdiction, the villagers had been facing hardships. He stated that under MPDA, one gets 80 percent FAR to build a house, but under TCP, the FAR is only 50 percent, due to which owners of small plots are facing hardships.
He claimed the MPDA had already prepared an outline development plan (ODP) that is easier to follow than the RP, which was stuck midway following objections from people across the State.
Sarpanch Ramakant Borkar acknowledged that since the time Sancoale was removed from the PDA and included in TCP, people have been only facing problems due to less FAR. He claimed that the village had been growing, but the growth would be best if the village was under the PDA, which had already prepared a foolproof plan (ODP) for Sancoale and neighbouring villages.
The gram sabha finally passed a resolution to write to the government to revoke its earlier decision to include the village in the TCP’s jurisdiction and issue a fresh order to re-include Sancoale under the PDA, like it was few years back.
The gram sabha also passed a resolution to oppose the demarcation of private forests in Sancoale. The members expressed disappointment on the issue and unanimously resolved to write to the government to maintain the ODP zoning of areas in the village.
