the goan I network
PANAJI
Town and Country Planning Board on Thursday cleared 18 cases of change of zone and approved conversion of over eight lakh square metres to ‘settlement’ and ‘institutional’ even as TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai said those who recently bought large chunks of orchard land will have only up to January 1, 2019 to apply for conversion.
“People who have sold or purchased orchard land should apply before January 1. After that the government will file FIRs against them,” Sardesai said while speaking to the media post the TCP Board meeting.
Meanwhile, among the proposals approved by the Board on Thursday is one of the P P Padmanabh Shishya Sampraday Viswasta Mandal, the Tapobhumi temple trust, whose partly institutional, partly settlement and orchard land in Kundaim admeasuring 1.8-odd lakh square metres into ‘institutional’.
In another case, the board approved the conversion of 3,840 square metres of paddy field in Dramapur-Salcete into ‘institutional’ for an old-age home for the Sharada Seva Sadhana Pratisthan.
In Aldona, 6,325 square metres of land zoned as ‘settlement’ in the Regional Plan 2021 was approved to be converted to ‘institutional’ for the Rosa Mystica Society’s St Thomas Girls High School.
Among the private applications for conversion, a massive chunk of 3.9-odd lakh square metres of orchard/natural cover/settlement land was converted to settlement zone in Usgao. The applicant in the case is Urmila Katkar, daughter of former MLA and Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president, late Sulochana Katkar.
In Cortalim, one-lakh square metres of partly settlement and orchard land, including no development slopes of a company named Peer Aar Housing Development Pvt Ltd, was converted to settlement zone by the Board. Most other cases for conversion to settlement zone which were approved involve parcels of land ranging from 350 to 28,000 square metres.
Meanwhile, Sardesai said a whopping 2-crore square metres of orchard land had changed hands in recent times and indicated that those who have invested for real estate speculation will not be allowed the window offered through the recent TCP act amendment for conversion beyond January 1 next year.
He said, FIRs will be filed in cases where orchard lands have been illegally sub-divided and developed into plots on the assumption that post-facto conversions could be secured.
