Edgar Ribeiro, one of India’s most renowned town planers,handpicked to steer the now debunked regional plan, may have resigned from theforce because of the skewed direction the plan was taking. But, he is in nomood to be a silent spectator. In what assumes immense significance, Riberiohas re-opened the debate with another strongly worded and extremely factual letterto Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, outlining that “the (then) governmentintervened in the ‘suggestions’ process from November 2008 itself, so as toplace a distorted RPG-21 in the public domain (perhaps for politicalcompulsions)”
Ribeiro, has been horrified that the notified RP 2021 was afar cry from what he had painstaking drawn as a part of Task Force and that thenotified RP 2021 ‘compromised both in contents and processes’ the principles ofregional planning.
“I was aghast when I heard the Industries Minister say thatwe shall have an industrial estate in every constituency. Where will theinfrastructure come from?” asks the octogenarian town planner, probably Goa’sbest bet in town and country planning and its safest bet on drawing a scientificRegional Plan. RIbeiro has reacted strongly to the whole concept of eco-tourismand MIEs that he said never were a part of the Task Force of RP deliberations.
Ribeiro’s argument against the notified Regional Plan 2021is that it is not a democratic exercise in consonance with 73rd and 74thAmendment of The Constitution of India that grants the Panchayats and UrbanLocal Bodies the power to draw their own ward level planning. In his letter to Town and Country PlanningMinister Parrikar himself, Edgar points out that “about one third of theState’s population in high land value urbanised locations, are outside the‘suggestions’ process”. The notified Outline Development plans (ODP) of all thetowns and cities of Goa were never included in RP 2021.
Both in his letter to Parrikar, as well as explaining to TheGoan, Ribeiro pointed out that all the state government projects were left outof the ambit of RP 2021. Recounting the interference from the then Government,Ribeiro remembers that even then Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane categoricallywanted all his health infrastructure projects to be kept out of the ambit ofthe Regional Plan. “Any infrastructure, whether government or private, hasinter-sectoral necessities like power, water, waste management etc. How canthen the government projects be left out?” asks RIbeiro.
The then Goa Government had put three architects “ RahulDespande, Brian Soares and Dean D’Cruz “ as part of the State Level Committeethat oversaw the notification of RP 2021. Soares, who was not a part of theoriginal SLC, came in when Datta Naik co-opted out. “Even though Deanrepresented the GBA, the three architects on the committee reflected a conflictof interest, because they have their own projects pending permissions with theTCP, that becomes questionable when such a critical exercise as an RP is to beformulated and notified” says Ribeiro.
Ribeiro’s revelation is a body blow to RP 2021 that needs tobe passed again through the comb of public scrutiny, in the light of the DraftRP 2021 that set the rules for development in the state. If the topmost TownPlanner in the land, who not only drafted the state’s Regional Plan but alsowas amongst the architects of the Town and Country Planning Act that governsthe state, says that the plan is wrong, then it is time that science and notpolitics takes over.
