MARGAO
Virtually ruling out scrapping of the Regional Plan 2021, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza, who also holds the TCP portfolio, on Thursday said the government will go ahead with the RP 21 if the discrepancies in the plan are corrected without changing the body of the plan.
He further cautioned that re-doing the entire planning process will take another 2-3 years, adding that the State might as well start planning for the RP 2031 or 2041.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of the Goa Aqua fish festival at Navelim on Thursday, D’Souza reminded that the draft plan was put in place after following a process, right at the gram sabha and panchayat level and after hearings. “I have no problem in scrapping the plan if all those who have lodged their objections are demanding for the scrapping. But, what if many people also ask for corrections. Though initially I had stated that I am open for scrapping of the plan, I now feel that if we can resolve the complaints and make corrections without changing the body of the plan, we will go ahead with the plan,” he said.
“I had earlier said that the plan may be scrapped because we had received only 3,500 objections. But if corrections are good enough, we will go ahead with the corrections. To re-do the entire process will take 2-3 years. We may as well plan for the new RP taking into account the planning needs of the 30’s and 40’s,” he added.
