PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday issued notices to Goa government and the Town & Country Planning Department in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that seeks quashing of the newly added Section 17 (2) of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act.
Petitioner NGOs, Goa Foundation and Goa Bachao Abhiyan have challenged the constitutional validity of Section 17 (2) arguing that it allows ad-hoc and arbitrary conversions of privately owned plots in the Regional Plan, based on individual applications on the grounds of alleged errors.
The 148-page PIL also alleged that such provision will only allow builders to set up concrete projects by destroying the environment.
“Such arbitrary conversions are leading to rampant and un-balanced development in the State of Goa in favour of builders as they uniformly involve permanent destruction of hill slopes, fields and natural cover (forest) and are contrary to the interest of the citizens and incompatible with the ecological requirements and resources of the State,” reads the plea.
The petitioners also challenged the provisions that permit rezoning of standalone plots. After notifying the Rules framed for operationalising Section 17 (2), the government had notified decisions to convert land use for plots belonging to several parties under the same section prompting the NGOs to challenge the move in the high court.
