PANAJI
Flagging what he termed as rampant and illegal land conversions, with nearly 60 lakh square metres of land”including ESA and NDZ areas”already converted in Pernem taluka alone, MGP Mandrem MLA Jit Arolkar on Wednesday demanded that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant immediately scrap the controversial Sections 17(2) and 39A of the Town and Country Planning Act.
Responding to the demand, the Chief Minister assured that the concerns raised by the MLA would be examined and forwarded to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department for further clarity.
Arolkar announced to take the issue to the floor of the House during the upcoming winter session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, scheduled to begin on January 12.
“I, along with the people of Pernem Taluka, place on record our strong and unequivocal opposition to Section 17(2) and Section 39A of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, which deserve to be scrapped in their entirety, as they strike at the very foundation of planned development, environmental protection, and democratic governance in the State of Goa,” Arolkar said in a representation submitted to the Chief Minister.
Speaking to media persons later, the MLA informed that almost 60 lakh sq mtrs of land involving 238 properties has been converted in Pernem taluka. He alleged that the properties belonging to persons from outside the State, including Delhi, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, have been converted with alarming speed merely on applications made by landowners.
“Lands like No development zones, eco-sensitive areas, private forests, agriculture fields and others have been converted in the guise of correcting inadvertent errors of RP 2021,” he said.
Arolkar charged that these two sections serve a common purpose -to facilitate selective, discretionary, and non-transparent zoning changes, largely benefitting private developers, builders, and land speculators, at the cost of agriculture, environment, and public interest.
In his letter, the MLA pointed out that the TCP Minister, by invoking these provisions, seeks to alter zoning of nearly 6 crore square metres of land across Goa by merely branding such large-scale changes as “mistakes” in the Regional Plan.
He said that the alteration has caused severe and irreversible damage to the ecological balance, traditional land use, and cultural identity of the people of Pernem Taluka. “Goa is not for sale. Its land, ecology, and identity cannot be sacrificed for short-term gains and private profiteering,” Arolkar said.
