MARGAO
The Goyche Fudle Pilge Katir has on Sunday said that the Draft Margao Outline Development Plan (ODP) 2031 exercise is nothing but an arbitrary FAR allocating exercise scattered and limited to plot-wise FAR allocation which has no sustainable city vision.
The NGO had arranged an interaction at the Clergy Home Margao on Sunday evening, wherein speakers Environmental Architect Elsa Fernandes and Prof Antonio Alvares spoke on the ODP and the land issues of the city.
Pointing out the mandate of the 74th amendment of the Constitution and its 12th schedule call for public participation, the NGO maintained that public participation is reduced to mere announcing of notification and deadlines without the actual engagement nor awareness has been attempted on the ground.
“All this will have a long-term irreversible impact on Margao and its neighbouring villages. When a city fails, it's not just its laws and governance, but also its people who fail,” president of the Forum Jack Mascarenhas stated.
He said Goyche Fudle Pilge Katir aims to safeguard the people's front for Margao and wishes for a scientific, technological, people-oriented, future-generation-friendly, interdisciplinary approach to be adopted for the city's planning.
And this is to realise GFPK is committed to making every effort with no stone unturned, he added.
He said Land Use Planning is the most important planning of any land which integrates all parameters of development including economic, social, cultural, and environmental so that the place has a vision for the future, adding: "It allows governments to have a comprehensive and risk-directed growth, especially in this age of climate crisis."
“When the world cries for attention on the decade of action on Sustainable Development Goals, Margao city is projected for growth till 2031 as organically as required by the Political and Land mafia nexus as it appears in the draft ODP 2031. As per the Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation Guidelines (URDPFI) guidelines of the Central Ministry of Urban Development 2014, every state must have a Land Utilisation policy, land being a state subject and further, a perspective plan for the state can guide the decadal regional and developmental plans. Goa clearly does not have the first two requirements in place to serve as any guide and has directly jumped on treating city-level planning in isolation from any state-level interest,” Jack said.
He added: “It is like a state within a state, which is also the case with all its other ODPs. It's challenging times of climate crisis and we in Goa seem to be 'susegad' about its land being manipulated along with our future. Cities need a lot of investments in infrastructure and hence, these above parameters broadly allow efficient use of resources and build the resilience of the city for liveability. Margao having a history of being the commercial capital of Goa has no central business district identified. It is known as the cultural capital of Goa has the conservation areas being depleted and challenged with the allocation of high FAR and commercial zones.”
“All this and more issues reflect a complete collapse of an integrated planning exercise and all that can be seen in the Draft ODP 2031 of Margao is an arbitrary FAR allocating exercise scattered and limited to plot-wise FAR allocation which has no sustainable city vision,” he added.
