MARGAO
The Village Groups of Goa (VVG) has once again demanded the de-notification of what it termed as fraudulent Regional Plan 2021 wherein fraudulent and arbitrary insertions have been allegedly made by the SLC as per dictates of their political masters.
The VVG has further demanded that arbitrary inclusions which are out of the planning parameters like the eco tourism, golf courses, marinas, helipads, MIZs, additional industrial estates, general industries, quarries, etc, be sent to respective villages to be approved by gram sabhas as such concepts were neither recommended by the VLC’s nor were proposed by task force in the draft RP.
VVG President Zarinha Da Cunha has said that information provided under RTI reveals that the SLC has not prepared and maintained any notings/remarks justifying the said inclusions made by them at finalization stage in the notified RP 2021.
While unequivocally condemning the present day government for trampling on the rights of the Goan people to decide and plan the land use for their villages, she said the present BJP government had stated in their election manifesto that they would scrap RP 2021 within 100 days of coming to power and the Governor in his maiden address to the house had also reiterated the government policy to scrap the RP 2021. “However, in yet another of umpteen 'U' turns, the government has now decided to accept objections and suggestions from the public/panchayats/MLAs without stipulating any guidelines/criteria. The government has also not defined what sort of suggestions/objections shall be considered. The entire exercise appears to be yet another farce with a concocted plan to regularise the fraudulent notified plan and to push through further inclusions in the RP 2021 as per whims and fancies of the present day political masters in collusion real estate, builder and hotel lobby," she added.
The VVG demand the scrapping of the Investment Promotion Board, terming it as nothing, but blatant abuse of power and a window to approve violations to notified RP and plans to loot the meager land and environmental resources. “It is another tentacle to bypass the RP besides the 16 & 16a amendment to the TCP Act and both should also be scrapped forthwith. Once the RP 2021 stands notified, there cannot be another window to bypass the RP to push through projects as per whims and fancies of the government in the feign garb of development and employment as being presently done. Approval of the Vanxim project by the Investment Promotion Board is a glaring example," she added.
Zarinha said the exclusion of ODP from the RP also smacks of corrupt intensions, while demanding that the ODP be included in RP as it should be one State one plan. "VVG demands that the plan should reflect land use pattern in sync with healthy policy decisions for the State and its stakeholders. Therefore, the tenanted lands, CRZ areas, railway lines, command areas, private forests, agricultural areas, communidade lands and buffer zones, etc should be reflected in the RP of the State. The Task Force in its policy document had mandated that these areas be marked in the final RP after obtaining data from respective authorities. The RP 2021 policy document in 2010-11 stated that these areas could not be larks as necessary inputs were not provided by respective depts. Now in 2015 surely the data should be ready and hence it is necessary to be marked in the final RP," she added.
