Team Herald
MARGAO: Demanding scrapping of the Regional Plan 2021 (RP21), Federation of Rainbow Warriors (FRW) has demanded that the government representatives either apologize for presenting the same rejected RP to Goans or resign and fight elections on the issue. It has also alleged that the government is trying to remove Goans from Goa via the RP.
“The RP was in violation of Town and Country Planning (TCP) laws from the beginning as no socio-economic data was collected from villages while ascertaining the changes in the draft. New settlement zones in ecologically sensitive areas of 10 to 15 lakh square meters in total have been added to villages, which is bound to add 2,000 to 3,000 flats in the villages. It is beyond imagination whether our villages will be left or not,” said FRW member Abhijit Prabhudessai.
He added, “This RP was made in 2007-08 and is obsolete. According to TCP guidelines, data older than three years has to be scrapped and new data should be procured. This old data is bound to pave way for seven-star hotels on eco-sensitive zones and tribal areas.”
FRW has decided not to approach the court as it believes the government would listen to its demands and stop the notification of the RP.
Ramkrishna Jalmi, a Ponda local, claimed that even before the RP has come into force, villages in Ponda have been witnessing massive land-filling, hill-cutting and tree-felling, and many lands are being converted into plots. He added, “It is a builders’ government.”
