PANAJI
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday indicated that the government may scrap altogether the land use planning exercise of formulating regional plans for the State and instead resort to creating 'zoning plans'.
“Zoning plans will be the new way forward,” Rane said even as he continued his tirade against the 'State Level Task Force Committee' which formulated the Regional Plan of Goa (RPG) 2021, calling it the biggest scam pulled on the people of Goa.
Rane said, a report will be placed before the Goa Legislative Assembly in its next session regarding the scam in RP-2021 and action will be taken against each member of the task force committee.
He said, he has discussed the issue with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and also the Party (BJP) about it.
Rane has come under severe criticism from greens and civil society for a series of recent amendments to land regulations and building laws, including the insertion of section 17(2) in the TCP Act to empower the Chief Town Planner to make changes in land use zoning in the RP.
He said, he will defend the amendments including the Section 17(2) "till the last".
Meanwhile dozens of civil society organizations from across Goa have formally opposed these changes in the statutes which they say allow arbitrary changes in land-use zoning in the Regional Plan, which seek to "perversely" favour private individuals and interests.
