MARGAO
With the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) scrapping the controversial Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao and Ponda, the fate of the 500-plus suggestions and objections received by the PDA for changes in zones remains uncertain.
No SGPDA official or member was willing to comment on the fate of the 500-plus applications received by the authority when the government had invited objections and suggestions to the draft-ODP last year, which stands scrapped now.
Questions are being raised in the corridors of the SGPDA as well as in the planning circles of Margao and Ponda whether the government would still consider the 500-odd applications when the process for the new ODP is started afresh or whether these mammoth objections and suggestions would find its way into the dustbin.
The TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai is presently abroad and was unavailable for comment. And attempts made by The Goan, seeking clarifications from the SGPDA member secretary Ashok Kumar did not evoke a position response from the authority.
“This question is relevant, but we do not know whether the government would take cognizance of the 500-plus applications or will call for fresh applications. The ball is indeed in the court of the government,” Ashok Kumar told The Goan.
He pointed out that SGPDA will forward to the government the PDA’s resolution scrapping the controversial ODP and the decision of the authority to start the ODP process afresh.
“We will have to wait for the government to take a firm stand on the matter,” remarked the PDA member secretary.
SGPDA had received the 500-plus suggestions and objections to the draft ODP, mostly relating to
change in zones from settlement to commercial. Whether these suggestions would be taken note of
when the new ODP is being finalised or the parties concerned will have to file fresh applications remains to be seen. This question has assumed significance, more so with the High Court making its observation on the controversial ODP, centered on the failure of the planning body to take the local civic bodies into confidence.
There’s, however, another school of thought, which is in favour of the total scrapping of the ODP and inviting fresh suggestions and objections to the PDA. For, they pointed out how the three-member sub-committee comprising Savio Corriea, Dilip Prabhudesai and Dilip Sopstheswarkar had rushed with its recommendations to the PDA within a short time-frame, after hearing a mammoth 500-odd applications. While the PDA in December last had tried to rush with the applications, seeking change in zones and for higher FAR, the Margao
civic body under Babita Angle Prabhudesai’s leadership had then mooted a host of proposals including shifting of petrol pumps, beggars house, changes to the parking lots, slaughter house, buffer zones near garbage dumps, vending zones, satellite centres, etc.
Officials in the know pointed out that the process to put in a place afresh will commence only after the government issues a notification under section 39 of the Town and Country Planning Act, with directions to the PDA to comply with the mandatory provisions in the TCP Act, starting with base mapping.
