MARGAO
As the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) braces up to invite suggestions and objections to the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao and Ponda planning areas, the same old question may come back to haunt the planners and politicos whether the ODP process changes with a change in political guard.
For, the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Board approved SGPDA’s request to extend by one month the process to complete the 2021 planning process before finalising the 2031 ODP for Margao and Ponda.
Otherwise, consider this: The ODP for Margao and Ponda was notified by the government on March 7, 2019, after the Goa Forward-controlled SGPDA had prepared the 2028 plan.
Exactly two years later in 2021, after the change in political guard, when the Goa Forward Party ministers were dumped by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant from the government, the Chief Town Planner issued an order on March 15, 2021, for the preparation of ODP 2031.
The reason advanced by the planners and politicians in support of the new ODP for the municipal areas in the two towns is that citizens have called for rectifications of anomalies in the 2028 plan.
Brushing aside strong objections raised by MLAs Digambar Kamat and Vijai Sardesai, the SGPDA headed by then Congress-turned-BJP Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa had set in motion the preparation of the ODP 2031 by inviting suggestions and objections from the public.
Around 160-odd suggestions and objections were received, but before the exercise could be capped and the ODP notified, the election code of conduct in the run-up to the 2022 Assembly polls came into force, keeping the ODP exercise on hold.
That’s not all. Post the Assembly polls, SGPDA got a new Chairman in Vasco MLA Krishna Daji Salkar. But before the PDA could take the 2021 process to the logical conclusion, TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane further kept on hold all the ODPs, including the Margao and Ponda plan.
Interestingly, the SGPDA, at its meeting held a week ago, sent a request to the Chief Town Planner to give a one-month extension to invite suggestions and objections to the ODP, a plea which has found favour with the TCP Board.
An SGPDA official confirmed to The Goan that the TCP Board has accorded approval to the SGPDA to extend the ODP process by a month.
He said the PDA will notify the process by inviting suggestions and objections to the ODP once the planning body receives the minutes of the TCP Board.
The official, however, sought to defend the PDA's decision to extend the process by a month, saying there’s nothing wrong in it, adding it has the backing of the law.
President of United Goans Foundation Dr Ashish Kamat, who has filed a petition in the High Court over the ODP, however, has begged to differ.
He has questioned the rationale behind opening the Margao and Ponda ODPs within three years, more so when the 2028 plan is challenged by the NGO in court.
He also reiterated that the ODPs must not and cannot be modified without updating the land use plan and land use register and placing it before the public for scrutiny as per Sections 26 and 27 of the TCP Act.
“Acting contrary defeats the fundamentals of planning i.e. collecting accurate base data,” he asserted.
Focus on Sonsodo land acquired for kabrastan
THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
Every time, the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao is prepared anew, there’s a change in the zone of the Sonsodo land acquired to set up a kabrastan.
While the land admeasuring 30,000 square metres was acquired for burial grounds in 2011, the zone was changed in the ODP 2028 to low-cost housing and orchard, virtually scrapping the plan to set up the kabrastan for the Muslim community.
When the SGDPA opened up the ODP 2031 in 2021 for finalisation, the Margao Municipal Council preferred to maintain silence.
Muslim organizations, however, had lodged objections to the change in the zone at the Sonsodo kabrastan land.
With the SGPDA bracing up to extend the 2031 ODP process by a month by inviting suggestions and objections, questions are being raised about whether the Sonsodo land zone will be reverted to the burial grounds as was the intended objective behind acquiring the land.
