PANAJI
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday tabled the report of the committee which reviewed irregularities in the Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of the Calangute-Candolim, Arpora-Nagoa-Parra and Vasco planning areas which has listed several properties belonging to Opposition Leader Michael Lobo, with land-use zoning changed in the ODPs vis-a-vis the Regional Plan, 2021 (RP-21).
The report has made several planning-related recommendations even as it has attached several annexures of findings including one that lists 10 properties in Candolim, Calangute, Nagoa and Parra where change of zone has been done in the ODPs related to RP-21.
All these 10 properties, totalling up to 27,000-odd square meters, according to the report's annexure, belong to Lobo, his wife and MLA Delilah and some other family members.
Speaking to the media, Rane declined to name Lobo but said all these properties will be reverted to their status as per the RP-21 which he said was the base plan and no one has the power to alter it.
He said, he has tabled the report in the Assembly after discussing it with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and national leadership of the BJP.
Another annexure attached to the committee's report lists 3.59-odd lakh square meters of land encompassing 434 properties converted to 'settlement' in the ODPs from their previous zoning listed in RP-21 as tenanted, cultivated, no development slope and mangroves in the five villages of Calangute, Candolim, Arpora, Nagoa and Parra.
Another document attached to the report and signed by three officials of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) -- R K Pandita (member-secretary), Vikram Tengse (Asst Engineer) and Bhalchandra D Naik (Planning Assistant) -- indicts Lobo for dictating change in zones from the RP-21 to the 'draft ODP' during his chairmanship of the NGPDA.
"It is to state here that Shri Michael Lobo was chairman of the Authority from the year 2012 to July 2019. The change of zone of Calangute-Candolim Planning Area are done by himself by dictating the consultant Mr Ashok D'Costa of Turbo Sketch that which survey numbers are to be changed to different zones" the document signed by Pandita, Tengse and Naik states.
In Calangute-Candolim, around 44,000-odd sq mts of tenanted land, 24,000-odd sq mts of cultivated land, 54,000-odd sq mts of NDZ land and 8,000-odd sq mts of mangroves have been converted to settlement from the RP-21 to the ODP, yet another annexure of the report states.
The committee headed by Chief Town Planner, Rajesh Naik has observed that no vision document, which is a must for any planning purpose, was envisaged while preparing the ODPs, especially of Calangute-Candolim and Parra-Arpora-Nagoa.
"A policy document should have been prepared by defining the objectives and goals to be achieved during the horizon period of these ODPs," it said.
It also pointed out that a fixed criteria was not adopted by the sub-committee nor the authority in deciding objections/suggestions received related to the draft ODPs.
Parameters in terms of accessibility to the plot, density, locational aspects, etc were not looked into satisfactorily while allocating the zoning to the properties, it added.
