the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress on Sunday alleged that the Town and Country Planning Department hastily notified conversions of land-use zones done under the recent section 16B amendment to the Act even before the TCP board meeting had concluded.
Congress spokesperson Tulio D’Souza said, the notification published in the official gazette on January 10 which notifies the land-use zone conversions does not mention the date of the TCP board meeting in which these were approved.
The notification has to be based on approved minutes of a TCP Board meeting which is concluded, D’Souza said, adding that in this particular case the meeting was inconclusive as the agenda had not been completed and it was concluded at a later date.
“This is a violation of known administrative procedures,” D’Souza said.
Meanwhile D’Souza also accused the government of abruptly terminating ongoing processes and finalising the Regional Plan 2021 on 20 March, 2018.
He also pointed out some decisions of the TCP board which violate rules and added that private forest land in survey 220 of Cortalim village was being converted.
In Penha de France, a commercial zone had been demarcated although there is no provision for it in the Regional Plan and commercial zones are allowed only in ODPs, he said.
Meanwhile, D’Souza and Congress’ chief spokesperson Sunil Khautankar also raised objections to the policy notified by the TCP department by which height restrictions are exempted and buildings of up to 60-metres height on plots of 10,000 square metres and more in commercial zones may be permitted in future. These exemptions are allowed with the condition that NOC is secured from the Fire Services department and the project proponent makes state-of-the-art fire-fighting equipment available at the site.
D’Souza said, the Congress has raised objection to this provision as it is in violation of the Goa Fire Force Act, 1986, and the rules thereunder besides the minimum standards mandated in the National Building Code, 2016.
The 60-metres height allowed will also affect bird movement in a city like Panaji which has the Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in close proximity, D’Souza added.
WRD engg transferred for being honest, want inquiry: Cong
PANAJI: Congress on Sunday alleged that an engineer of the WRD was transferred within a month of being posted, penalising his sincere and upright discharge of duty related to reporting the poor quality of work being executed by a contractor.
Raising the issue through a press conference at Panaji, Congress chief spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar demanded an inquiry. He said a complaint will be filed on Wednesday before the vigilance department.
Kawthankar, however, declined to reveal the name of the engineer, adding that he will mention the name confidentially in his complaint to the vigilance department.
He also said that the engineer concerned was posted in Margao on January 3 2019 and transferred on January 29, within 26 days of posting.
“This upright engineer was removed only because he was discharging his duties faithfully,” said Kawthankar, adding that while inspecting the quality of desilting and beautification work of Talyeband in Nuvem constituency, he had raised major objections such as use of quarry dust instead of sand, use of non-specified pebbles in concrete, centering which has to be kept at least for 8 days was removed within five hours.
Kawthankar alleged that the Minister sent a note to the chief engineer seeking transfer of the Engineer and also demanded action against the Chief Engineer.
