Photo caption
Colva villagers raise their hands in support of a resolution demanding immediate scrapping of the RP 2021. Santosh Mirajkar
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MARGAO
A meting of Colva villagers held at the Church hall unanimously demanded the forthwith scrapping of the Regional Plan 2021 with a further resolution to appoint a panel to supervise the planning process.
Speakers hit out at the government for trying to bulldoze with the RP21 when the people across the State have been demanding the scrapping of the plan and set in motion the process to put in place a new plan.
The meeting addressed by activists Abhijit Prabhudessai, Sidharth Karapurkar, Judith Almeida and Parish Priest of Colva, Fr Joseph Da Silva called for steps to save the land and the people from destruction.
In his address, Abhijit said that instances are galore that the RP21 has sought to convert hills, mountains and even khazan lands for settlement and for roads, adding that the plan will destroy the State and its environment.
Judith Almeida pointed out that the government has not given any thought to providing basic infrastructure required by the villagers, but is planning something with a vested interest in mind.
One of the speakers feared that Colva will be wiped out from the map if the RP21 is accepted in the present form, saying the roads proposed in the RP will remain, but the people will disappear.
A villager Goretti Vaz said the plan must be denotified and a new plan prepared for Goa 2021 since the plan increases the settlement, industrial, tourism and road infrastructure across the State without considering the carrying capacity of Goa. “Goa has suffered great destruction due to the flawed tourism, real estate and the industrial policies of the government over the past five decades and is now on the edge of a total environment and economic collapse, which will devastate the society," she said.
She said the plan will not only destroy Goan villages, but Goa’s identity and culture, environment and ecology, the economy of the State, causing irreversible displacement of the population of the State.
