MARGAO
A delegation of Goyche Fudle Pilge Khatir (GFPK) called on the South Goa Planning and Development Authority on Friday and demanded that the SGPDA takes serious note of their observations/suggestions/objections and put in place a sustainably planned Margao city for 2031.
The GFPK has submitted a written letter to the PDA Member Secretary demanding to know whether the SGPDA has called for any report on the water needs of the Margao city for the next 10 years till 2031.
The NGO further sought to know whether the Margao Municipality has shared any parking audit details for the future planning of the road networks and whether any garbage infrastructure details were shared with SGPDA to base this land use planning.
Seeking to know whether pollution of Sal River has been taken into account while preparing the ODP 2031, the NGO further asked whether the Central Business District (CBD) has been demarcated for planning the C1 commercial zones for the Margao city.
The delegation has further asked whether the Margao city has any conservation policy document or any other State conservation policy document and whether the CRZ mandate of flood hazard line and khazan land management been considered for this planning till 2031.
Since many areas have been arbitrarily changed in zone from agriculture to settlement to commercial, and the road widths have also been arbitrarily finalised, the NGO has raised apprehensions that construction proposals also will be arbitrarily finalised and have irreversible impact on Margao.
Given that there are Central government guidelines that the State should have a land utilisation and urbanisation policy and also that the land use planning of Margao city be in harmony with the State perspective on land use planning for the next ten years, the NGO stressed on the need that Margao city planning should follow good practices, central government guidelines and establish a State level harmony in norms for land use planning.
“Otherwise, each land use planning authority will be a state unto themselves and the future generation will question us on inter-generational equity on their land and water resources which we have to sustainably plan today for the next decades to come,” the NGO pointed out.
