Close on the heels of the Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane withdrawing a contentious amendment bill that sought to bestow upon the department unbridled powers to bypass even court scrutiny, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant tabled another amendment bill that gives sweeping powers to the Investment Promotion Board over-riding all departments, local bodies and even Industrial boards and authorities.
The Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation of Single Window Clearance (Amendment) Bill, 2024 to amend the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation of Single Window Clearance Act, 2021 inserts two major additions to the law. First, Section 14A empowers the IPB Committee to direct local authorities and local bodies to clear projects over-riding their objections.
Similarly, the second amendment (14B) gives sweeping powers to the Committee to issue directions to the Goa Industrial Development Corporation to clear proposals within a time frame of 30 days, fix responsibility on officers of the IDC and ask the government to take necessary action on considering the delay as wilful default and wanton negligence.
The bill prescribes a Planning, Development and Construction Committee headed by the Chief Secretary as the chairman, has senior officials of other departments besides the chief electrical engineer, principal chief engineer (PWD), chief town planner, member secretary pollution control board, district collectors and others. This committee is also empowered to dispose of applications bypassing all other departments.
Congress legislator Carlos Alvares Ferreira, while calling the amendments draconian, punched holes in the many sections that blur the avowed objective of facilitating investment projects through single window clearance. Goa Forward legislator Vijai Sardesai questioned the intent behind creating, what he called, a "monstrous" body that is poised to usurp the powers of all other departments.
Sawant's decision to refer the bill to the select committee is welcome, especially when ministers are striking a defiant chord given their brute majority. However, the meekness with which the CM conceded without putting up a resolute defence or explanation indicated that the bill was on a trial run in the House. The bill may be referred to the select committee, but this too left a bitter after-taste with a concoction of ministerial rivalries being the dominant flavour. Was Sawant trying to wrest control over departments which are out of his domain? Or was this a game of one-upmanship?
The tearing hurry with which such amendments are brought into important laws raises suspicion about the intent of those moving these bills. In a democratic setup, there has to be a healthy debate and all fears have to be allayed, irrespective of what the minister construes.
There is no denying that Goa needs to create the ease of doing business that the government has been promising for a long time. There is also a need for a single-window clearance system to facilitate industries and other investment-related projects. We need to move into the fast lane within the framework, not by creating 'super-powered" bodies that could tear apart protocols and commonly laid down systems.
In times when people are resisting wholesale changes to the Goa’s landscape with unfavourable projects forcing their way through, a public say is paramount. Not considering the perspectives of local bodies or imposing the committee’s will on panchayats could be detrimental to the system. Sawant must steer away from "political play" and come clear on the reasoning behind every amendment he has proposed.
