Panaji (Goa): Amidst opposition from several villages to the formation of PDAs, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday condemned the move of the government terming the extensive outline development plans terming as a “payback time.”
“This scam called PDAs need to be scrapped as was the RP 2011. At the very least, the State of Goa needs to follow the constitution of India of which it is a part,” stated an AAP communiqué released at a press conference today.
AAP called upon the Government to listen to the voices of the people in St Cruz and St Andre areas who are opposing the newly formed Greater Panjim PDA. IN addition to these two, many villages which will come into the new PDA have opposed the move.
AAP further lashed out at the government pointing at the real problem being the PDAs that prepare the plans is an unconstitutional body. “Under the 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution in 1992, all planning has to be done by the Panchayats and Municipalities with the Town Planning acting as a technical body to support it. While the 73rd amendment allowing powers to set up development committees to the panchayats has been done, the actual rights to do planning has not been devolved and this is still centralised allowing PDAs to function and with MLAs from very different constituencies heading them not answerable to the people. This centralisation has led to planning decisions which are against people and the environment and blatantly in personal interest,” said AAP leader.
Terming the ODPs as a subset of the Regional Plan, AAP said that it is now very clear why the 2021 plan is kept in abeyance. “Currently the RP 2001 is in use, where the whole of Goa sits on a small table and Town Planners tell you whether your land is in settlement or out using a plastic school ruler and a vague practice, where a slip of 1 millimetre could free up thousand square metres. This was earlier stopped with the preparation of the 2021 plan and is now being revived, as we all know, vagueness helps the corrupt. The outline development plan despite all the claims has no scientific or constitutional basis and goes against all planning norms,” AAP said.
AAP leader and renowned Architect Dean D Cruz recalled, “The first planning exercise prepared in Goa was done in 1986 and called the Regional Plan 2001. Subsequent to this, densely populated areas that faced development issues were brought under the Planning and Development Authority to make sure that proper roads and infrastructure was put in place. However over time these outline development plans slowly became instruments of increasing the built-up-area of the plots in these towns regardless of surroundings.”
He further stated that with the pressure picking up all over Goa, the 2011 plan was prepared which sought to convert large tracts of land all over the State in a dubious manner. “When the people realised the nature of the scam encouraged by the Town Planning Minister there was an uprising and the plan was thrown out. After this the Regional Plan 2021 was prepared that took into account suggestions from the people and panchayats all over the state and used the 2001 base. Its main thrust was to protect the vast eco sensitive zones of Goa and work at readable scale the contours of villages,” Cruz commented.
AAP further pointed out that through the plan one could see clearly, survey number by survey number whether one’s property was in settlement or no development zone. “For the first time everything was mapped and in public domain and not sitting in inaccessible files. However for strange political reasons the 2021 was kept in “abeyance” and projects passed on a “case to case” basis. The Investment Promotion Board turned into another scam, where conversion of land was done even beyond the mandate of the board itself, promoting projects in CRZ areas and housing projects which was not part of its scope,” it said.
Further more it stated that the PDAs, introduced in the 70s, whose initial function is planning and development, such as creating housing schemes, market places, road development etc are now resigned to art colouring classes where sudden colour changes have been done both for and against people in an arbitrary manner. “RTIs have revealed that the changes from low to high FARs (built up) areas have no real justification with questionable site visits (sometimes 10 sites in half an hour) and are done in a completely random manner. Any sensible zoning in any plan is based on boundaries of roads, natural geo features like water bodies etc and not individual plots. We have seen in areas that new roads have been proposed through fields and mangroves as well as forests, with the intent of opening out new areas for development at the behest of local MLAs, regardless of real and present dangers of global warming,” reads the press note.
