TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The Village Groups of Goa (VGG) has demanded that the RP2021 should be finalised as per the plans submitted by the village level committees and clarifications or changes must be done in consultation with the panchayats and the village level committees.
The village groups reiterated that all constructions only for single dwelling unit be permitted and large scale conversions taking place till date must be reviewed and stopped and only allowed for areas of 500 sq meters or less. “The VGG are appalled at the chief minister throwing his thoughts into public domain. The said statements are not binding and serve no purpose, but confuse the citizens of the state,” asserted Zarina Da Cunha, while reiterating the demand of VGG that the 73rd and the 74th amendment of the Constitution of India be implemented in Goa in letter and spirit.
She said that the onus of eliciting public response must fall on the State, and must at the earliest spell out a procedure through which it will be possible for Gram Sabhas to obtain from a competent resource person, sufficient information regarding such changes to the law, prior to informed debate in the gram sabhas.
“The Draft regional plan prepared by the task force and sent to the villages concerned had itself questioned certain laws like the TCP Act that has yet to be addressed among others. The said Draft RP having been sent to panchayats was put before gram sabhas and the village level committees selected from the gram sabhas by following the due participatory process at the respective villages. There are a few exceptions but by and large all the VLCs worked very hard and after following the due process by first putting it to the gram sabha for approval and then sending it to the taluka level technical committee before it was sent to the SLC,” she said.
Zaina said the SLC was appointed by the government to oversee the finalization of the RP2021 reeked of the builder lobby with no thought to socio economic and spatial planning. “The proof of how the plan was notified cunningly piece-meal without the district and Regional Dimension.
It is absurd that even as rectifications and corrections are being suggested, the public in Goa does not yet have before it the composite projected plan that would explain the contiguity’s. There ware many omissions including VP3 status and additions without explanations or justifications like the Eco tourism zone, Micro Industrial zone and marine parks.
Additional settlement areas were marked using Google imagery without checking ground reality, gazette changes done in RP2001 in eco sensitive zones heave gone unchecked and unchanged among others. It maybe noted all this was not part of the Draft RP and the SLC totally exceeded its brief,” she added.
