the goan I network
MARGAO
All eyes are focused on the December 5 meeting of the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) which is expected to take a call whether to grant development permissions for the projects or wait for the High Court to decide the fate of the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao notified during the tenure of the previous body.
At the last date of hearing, the SGPDA had kept on hold all 50 applications for development permissions on the ground that a writ petition is pending before the High Court. It was then decided that PDA will meet on December 5 to decide a call on the pending applications at the next hearing.
Incidentally, when the writ petition filed by the United Goan Foundation came up for hearing before the High Court, notices were issued by the Court to the parties, including the SGPDA, returnable on December 16.
The question that now remains unanswered is whether the SGPDA will now go ahead and decide on the pending applications for development permissions on December 5 when the ODP matter is coming up before the High Court on December 16.
When The Goan called up SGPDA chairman, MLA Wilfred D’Sa to shed light on the fate of the applications pending for development permission in the light of the writ petition, he merely said the members will take a final call on the matter on December 5.
He, however, hastened to add that the HC has not passed any directions, staying the SGPDA from taking decision on the development permission based on the notified ODP.
“Right now, all I can say is that the PDA meeting is scheduled on December 5 and the members will take a call on the mater. However, it is a fact that the High Court has not stayed the PDA from taking any decisions on the applications based on the notified ODP,” D’Sa said, while saying the SGPDA will also consult its legal counsel on the issue.
The United Goan Foundation had knocked the doors of the High Court challenging the validity of the land use plan and the ODP for Margao
The NGO had raised a host of contentions, claiming that the PDA had wrongly invited suggestion, thus allegedly allowing massive zone changes in the final plan without the knowledge of the public, thereby denying natural justice to the people.
Moreover, it was contended that the ODP was not prepared based on land use plan. Instead it was prepared based on the previous ODP, which is not in conformity of the act and rules. While claiming there was no public participation while preparing the draft, the foundation contended that any sort of involvement of the municipality was just tokenism.
Contending that massive zone conversion was done on the pretext of cartographic errors even after the plan was notified, the foundation submitted that the city needed a Comprehensive Development Plan much like the ODP.
President, United Goans Foundation, Dr Ashish Kamat has insisted that the ODP has to be a broad classification of zones and not an exercise to colour plots of land on case to case basis.
