TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a bid to avert misuse of farmhouses, Town and Country Planning department is working on amending farmhouse regulations to ensure that the houses are used exclusively by farmers and avert their conversion for commercial or real estate purposes.
The regulations will aim at controlling the system, without interfering into the rights of people, chief town planner S T Putturaju said.
TCP has currently halted construction licences for farmhouses in the State, following Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s announcement in the State Legislative Assembly. The recent Assembly session witnessed an animated debate over illegal farmhouses, with Goa Vikas Party legislator Francisco ‘Mickky’ Pacheco alleging increase in the number of illegal farmhouses across the State.
TCP has now decided to move a note to State government seeking directions over formation of a special committee to identify and crackdown on the illegal farmhouses.
“Though there was an announcement in the House, Government has not officially given any directions so far. We have decided to move a note seeking how to go ahead with the issue,” Putturaju told Herald.
He said that directions would be issued to North and South Goa planning and development authorities and other branches of TCP to furnish details about permissions granted to farmhouses since 1987-88, when the first licence was issued.
The permissions for farmhouses are granted under the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations 2010. The farmhouse is a shelter built on agricultural land by a farmer for agricultural purposes. No permissions are given to farmhouses below 4,000 sq mtrs of land, Chief town planner said.
Putturaju said that government is working on amending the farmhouse regulations thereby preventing its misuse. “The new regulations will ensure that the farmhouses are exclusively used by farmers and not sold out for commercial and real estate purposes,” he added.
Everything would be undertaken by a government-appointed committee, he added. Putturaju admitted that currently the farmhouse regulations are largely violated.
