MARGAO
Curtains have finally down on the two-month long exercise initiated by the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) to invite objections for the draft Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao.
On the last day on Tuesday, the SGPDA is believed to have received around 58-60 objections and staff were preoccupied with the task of compiling these.
SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar told The Goan that the total number of objections lodged by the citizens could in the range of 300-350, even as he hastened to add that a clear picture would emerge in a day or two.
As reported earlier, the PDA member secretary has asserted that no extension of time will be granted by the PDA for filing of objections beyond the date.
Giving details about the exercise, the PDA member secretary informed that the SGPDA meeting is scheduled later this week, wherein members will take a call on the constitution of a sub-committee to go into the objections received from the citizens. “The brief of the sub-committee will be to go into the objections, compile them as per the nature of the objections and place the report before the Authority for a decision,” he said.
This is the second time in the last three years that the SGPDA is conducting the exercise of inviting objections to the draft ODP, with the previous exercise coming a cropper following a raging controversy over the plan.
In fact, the previous exercise had to be scrapped after public outcry, more so after the MLAs of Margao, Fatorda and Ponda and the Margao Municipal Council Chairperson raised objections to the manner in which the PDA had gone about the entire exercise.
It was only after a local city-based NGO moved the HC, the PDA had to withdraw finalization of the draft ODP. The new government headed by Parrikar in early 2017 scrapped the entire process and initiated a fresh exercise, beginning with the preparation of the land-use plan and register.
