"It is fortunate that the bill was withdrawn. The Goa Town and Country Planning (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2024, was essentially an attempt to reintroduce the ordinance and amendment from February, which had already been stayed by the High Court.
"Nearly 90 per cent of the bill's content mirrored that of the ordinance, which was previously halted, along with the outline development plans (ODPs) for five villages.
The ordinance had been deemed detrimental to the State, particularly to those villages, so passing this bill would have effectively overridden the High Court's order.
It was not appropriate for the government to push this as a bill, making its withdrawal a step in the right direction."
-- Swapnesh Sherlekar, Activist
