PANJIM: The Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar announced the constitution of a House Committee after the end of ongoing Assembly session to discuss and finalise the Regional Plan finalization and other issues related to Town and Country Planning.
He said five to six legislators would be appointed on the committee — likely to be a eight-member committee after whose views were taken, the process of land plan for the state would be initiated.
Without deliberating anything further on the Regional Plan issue, Parrikar said “illegal constructions had nothing to do with the Regional Plan, whether there is a plan or not, the people involved in it would do it.”
The House Committee would also discuss the functioning of Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department.
The BJP government had promised to scrap and re-notify the Regional Plan in the run up to the Assembly elections. However, after the elections, the government by a circular, held the plan in abeyance and used two plans to clear the projects.
Cutting across party lines, MLAs on Monday attacked the government over its failure to finalize the contentious Regional Plan 2021 which has been lying in cold storage for some time. They unanimously opined that the delay in notifying the Regional Plan is hurting the State.
Moving a cut motion on the demand for grants for Town and Country Planning department, Leader of Opposition Pratapsingh Rane pointed out that paddy fields and the low lying areas are been converted into settlement zones with the blessing of panchayats and local government bodies.
“For the socio-economic growth of the State, it is important that the land use plan –the regional plan is finalized at the earliest,” Rane said.
The Leader of Opposition said that the former Congress government under Digambar Kamat had constituted an expert committee with members such as Charles Correa to draft the Regional Plan. “And I don’t think that the views of these people are wrong,” he said while alleging ‘every person wants the plan to be drafted as per their wishes. This is delaying the plan’.
Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco recalled that in his speech on the floor of the House in 2012, the Governor had said that the new government was very much concerned and would de-notify the Regional Plan and formulate a new plan with due consultation with the stakeholders right from the grass root level. “However, nothing has happened so far on the issue. Government is just making U-turn on its own promises and deadlines,” Reginaldo alleged.
Participating in the discussion, Independent MLA Vijai Sardesai termed the Regional plan (RP) as ‘RIP’ and demanded that the plan needs to be put in place as soon as possible. “Twenty eight months have passed since giving the deadlines for bringing in land plan in place. Chief Minister always set August as a deadline for taking any decision pertaining to the Regional Plan. He (CM) is very fond of the month of August,” he said pointing to the recent announcement of Chief Minister to look into the Regional Plan issue in August.
BJP MLA Nilesh Cabral, while pressing for the demand for a Regional Plan for the State, pointed out that large number of permissions are been granted illegally by local bodies based on the RP 21 and RP 2001, which is used as a reference plan by the Town and Country Planning Department. He was supported by his colleague Glen Ticlo, who also raised concerns about the increasing illegal construction in the absence of a land plan.
Independent Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte, also stressed on the need for immediate implementation of the Regional Plan without further delay.
