OLD GOA
A large number of people from different parts of the State assembled near the Nursing College, Bambolim, on Friday to demand a new Regional Plan for Goa.
The gathering armed with placards also demanded that the various amendments in the TCP Act like 17 (2) and 39-A should be done away with so that the hills, forests, fields, etc are saved from builders and real estate developers, mostly from outside State.
Speaking on the occasion, AAP MLA Cruz Silva, under whose leadership the meeting was organised, said that the time has come to begin the process for a new Regional Plan for the State.
"RP 2021 is already over and it is time that the process for a new Regional Plan should be put in motion and the various amendments like 17(2) and 39-A be done away with," Silva stated.
"We want our hills, our forests, our fields to be saved from destruction from the builders and real estate developers," Silva further said and added that in the coming days, meetings will be held in other villages as well.
Activist Swapnesh Sherlekar too echoed similar sentiments as he said that Goa is put on sale due to the amendments like 17(2) and 39-A.
"If the situation continues, then Goa's greenery will be lost forever and Goans will get marginalised in their own land," Sherlekar said.
Another activist Abhijit Prabhudessai said that the new Regional Plan has to be prepared at the grassroots level.
"The people have to prepare the Regional Plan and they have to decide what they want for their respective villages," Prabhudessai said and added that under no circumstances forest areas, fields, eco-sensitive zones, no development zones should be allowed to be converted.
AAP State President Amit Palekar, Prof. Ramrao Wagh, activist Mariano Ferrao, former St Cruz MLA Victor Gonsalves, Cecille Rodrigues and various other speakers also spoke on the occasion.
