MAPUSA
North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) Member Secretary R K Pandita said the present land-use map and register placed for observation for people of Parra and Arpora-Nagoa was just a draft and the final land-use map will incorporate colours.
“This land-use map and register show only the structures like the existing buildings, roads etc. This does not include the zoning of the area showing the hills, settlement, commercial etc,” Pandita said.
“After adopting the present land-use map and register (after incorporating all corrections), the colour map will show the exact ruling of that area. In that we will show the exact zoning,” he added.
The NGPDA member secretary acknowledged that some residents from Arpora-Nagoa and Parra had approached him on Friday with genuine concerns.
“Whatever issues they are raising are genuine. I told them since this is a draft plan, corrections can be done. I asked them to put their objections in writing which will be put before the authority for rectification,” he said.
Pandita agreed that some people were drawing comparison with the land-use map and register prepared for Calangute-Candolim.
“This time, the pattern has been changed and therefore it has created a little confusion in some people’s mind. I told them to put it in writing and we will find a solution to rectify the doubt in people’s mind,” he said.
Pointing to glaring irregularities in the land-use map of Parra, former sarpanch Benedict D’Souza said the hills in the village were painted white.
“Since settlement areas are shown as white in the land-use map, our hills will also turn into settlement areas. In the regional plan, these hills have been shown as no-development slopes,” D’Souza argued.
Similarly, he said there were some illegal structures in survey no 181/13 at Almeida vaddo, Parra which has been shown as settlement in the map.
“I had filed a complaint against these structures and the panchayat had also issued a demolition order against those structures. But in the map these structures have been shown existing clearly indicating that something is amiss,” the former sarpanch said. He further said that the legends in the map were not correctly labeled and required clarification.
Former Parra sarpanch, Benedict D’Souza, Premandand Divkar, Damiao Telles, Agnelo Barretto and Bejamin D’Souza were part of the group that met the NGPDA member secretary.
