The recently concluded monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly saw several contentious issues raised and assurances given by the government, however, one crucial area where the government failed to give a concrete assurance one way or another is on the issue of a new Regional Plan for the State.
It was a demand made by several legislators during the discussion on demands for grants to the TCP Department notably by Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward, Venzy Viegas of the AAP as well as other Congress legislators who pointed out that the horizon period of the existing Regional Plan 2021 is already past and a new plan with a new horizon period is the need of the hour.
In response, however, TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane refused to give a clear reply and instead argued whether the state needs a regional plan and put the question back to Sardesai as to why he hadn't drafted a regional plan during his tenure. It is clear that Rane was reluctant to discuss the idea in any coherent manner and there was no clear reasoning why he wasn't in favour of a regional plan.
In truth, it appears that Rane is quite happy with the status quo, but given that the status quo is untenable and possibly not in consonance with the TCP Act, he isn’t willing to double down on it, at least publicly. But, as Sardesai argued in his speech on the issue, the absence of a regional plan will mean completely unplanned, arbitrary and piecemeal development that is completely against the spirit of the Town and Country Planning Act.
Such kind of piece-by-piece planning is a hallmark of other cities of the country as a result of which they are marked by chaotic amenities and services that can't handle the load of the development. It is exactly this kind of arbitrary, unplanned development that was opposed via the massive GBA agitation back in 2007 that forced the then Digambar Kamat government to scrap the Regional Plan 2011 and set up a committee to draft the current Regional Plan 2021 that set out policies for ecozones, for FAR and also for development projects.
On the other hand, there are also risks to drafting a new Regional Plan from scratch. In the wrong hands, the drafting exercise can end up being yet another RP 2011 all over again as we saw happen at a smaller scale with the Pernem Zoning Plan that was later scrapped in 2023 after massive protests in Pernem.
What Goa needs is a plan that is done in consultation with the people -- an exercise that was similar to the one carried out in the run-up to the RP 2021 -- but with clear guidelines drafted by a broad-based state-level committee. There is no doubt that this is going to be a massive exercise that will be fraught with conflict besides being a noisy affair.
But at the very least, the people of Goa deserve a say in the development of the state and the direction it takes, and certainly not left to the whims and fancies of the government in power.
