MARGAO
Having received around 400 objections to the Outline Development plan (ODP) for Margao, the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) will set in motion the process to hear the objections, beginning from Wednesday.
The three-member sub-committee constituted by the SGPDA to scrutinize the objections will begin the process of hearing the objections at the PDA office from tomorrow. The sub-committee consisting of PDA members, Venkat Raut and Lyndon Pereira, besides Member Secretary Ashok Kumar will go through each and every objections filed by the citizens to the draft ODP.
SGPDA member secretary Ashok Kumar informed that the sub-committee has fixed for hearing around 30 objections every day. “The PDA has sent out notices to the applicants who have filed their objections to the plan. The sub-committee will hear their views on the objections before making the necessary recommendations,” he said.
Though no deadline has been set by the PDA to complete the exercise of hearing the objection, PDA officials said they expected to cap the exercise at the earliest. “The sub committee is not only expected to hear the objections but make site visits to ascertain the ground reality,” an official informed.
It was only after each and every objection is heard by the sub committee than a detailed report will be compiled by the panel and placed before the authority for a final decision.
As reported earlier, this is the second time in two years that the SGPDA has constituted a sub-committee to hear the objections received for the draft ODP. Last time around, the sub-committee had held a similar exercise with the members almost capping the process before controversy broke out, triggering protests from the MLAs as well as the city fathers for neglecting the local bodies while initiating the ODP finalization process.
