At a meeting held at the residence of Ms Victoria
Fernandes MLA Santa Cruz this evening in the presence
of members of Village Panchayats NGO's Ms Fernandes
briefed those present on 
a) her meeting with the Chief Minister on 15th
December, 2005 alongwith the Chairman Santa Cruz
Constituency Action Committee and this writer b)
Congress Legislature Party meeting held today

Ms Fernandes told the members that the CM has
reiterated once again that all revenue villages
excluding Taleigao will be removed from the PDAs.  The
file to that effect has been moved and the
notification to that can be expected by 20th December,
2005.  This was also confirmed from the Law Department
and the TCP office Town Planner the dealing hand in
this matter. Mr Rane assured her that the Sub
Registrar Panaji (who was on leave today) would be
directed not to insist on NOC's for registering
documents sale deeds ect from the NGPDA as in
principle the Government has already agreed to scrap
all revenue villages (exluding Taleigao) from the
PDA's.  

As regards the ordinance Mr Rane re-assured that it is
a dead issue and that repeal of the ordinance is a
mere procedural aspect and is awaiting the legal
opinion of Mr U V Bakre the ex Judge who has now taken
over as the Law Secretary Government of Goa. 

Mr Rane also stated that having recieved directives
from the High Command there was no going back on these
directions and hence the scrapping of the ordinance is
obvious and a fore gone conclusion.

The next issue taken up was the extension of time for
examining the draft regional plan 2011.  She once
again demanded that the Panchayats and Municipalities
should be permitted to examine the plan at the village
level in accordance with the 73rd and 74th amendment
to the Constitution which empowers the people in
matters of development.  She also objected to the
scale 1:25,000 and with this it was not clear what
activity would come up in the villages.

She stated that most party MLA's vociferously opposed
the extension prominent among them was Mr Dayanand
Narvekar Mr Luizinho Faleiro Mr Joaquim Alemao who
felt that the projects under their respective
portfolios would suffer, viz the IT park the Food
Processing Park etc; Ms Fernandes however stated that
she stood her ground and refused to accept the
Regional Plan in its present form which was not upto
scale and could not spell out clearly what the Plan
holds in store for the respective villages. 

She pointed out that while the previous Government
gave two months amidst another unrest then caused by
the inclusion of revenue villages of Salcete in the
Margao PDA, her Party has during the agitation to
scrap the ordinance and the inclusion of revenue
villages in the PDAs quietly extended the time for
receiving comments from the persons likely to be
affected by the Regional Plan 2011.  In any case when
the RP 2001 was redundant for the past four years the
Government did not find it easy to change the zoning
and therefore it could continue until this Plan is
thoroughly examined by all village Panchayats. Hence
she demanded that the Plan be made available for
another few months until 31st March 2005. She said the
 TCP Board  would  review the same at its meeting on
27th December, 2005.


She stated that she warned the Party members at the
CLP that her supporters were ready to stage a fresh
agitation if need be and this time the Government
would be caught on the wrong foot.  However she did
not clarify to the Party the type of agitation stating
that it would be the first of its kind in the history
of Goa.


Following the above all the Panchas other NGOs and
like, minded citizens have decided to hold Gram Sabhas
on 19th December, 2005 at all Village Panchayats
giving the Government a clear notice that the Village
Panchayat of Goa in public interest condemn and
strongly object to the Regional Plan 2011 in its
present form  since the Plan was not made available to
the Panchayats.

Immediate contacts will be established with Panchayats
in all the 11 Talukas and based on this the
resolutions will be moved.  All those present agreed
to ensure that atleast two village Panchayats in each
taluka move the resolution to force the Government to
act.

Most of the members expressed disgust over the
functioning of the present Government and the unholy
intentions of the MLA's who niether come out openly or
against the issues involved, giving an impression that
the present dispensation is out to rip the Treasury
for their own personal gains.

The meeting ended with a firm resolve that the forces
be mobilized for a final show down if the Government
dilly dally's on the issue any longer.  Ms Fernandes
is likely to leave for New Delhi in a day or two to
present a report on Child development which will be
deliberated by Parliament later.

In the meanwhile the South Goa Public Interest Action
Group NGO has decided to investigate into the
credentials of the Consulting Engineering Services
Limited Mew Delhi for their expertise and past
experience on Town and Country Planning and
preparation of Regional Plans,through its sources in
New Delhi as
the Regional Plan 2011 does not appear to be a
professional excercise,  the Plan it is observed has
marked out state/taluka/panchayat/National State
Highway/ existing and proposed/major District
roads/other roads/Konkan railway/Railway line
(SR/waterbody/mines/salt pans/mangroves/Fish
farm/Fishing Centre/Government Forest/Natural
cover/Tourist Places/Beaches/Defence Area/Social
Forest/Orchard/Pasture Land/Cultivable
land/institutional area/Estates/Sandy
area/Conservation area/Special Economic Zone.

Surprisingly in the legend the Special Economic Zone
is shown twice and there is no authentication on the
date when the Plan was prepared and draft finalised, 
Given the paucity of time one could well change the
final plan given the hurry in which it is intended to
be cleared.

It may be recalled that this writer visited the India
Habitat in New Delhi and met some senior officials of
the Town & Country Planning on the issue and they 
were unanimous on one point that every regional Plan
should be examined in the light of the changing
demographic pattern viz; census 2001 and the 73rd and
74th Constitutional amendment involving the people at
the grass root levels to decide what is best for them
and not leave it to a bunch of "law makers" to decide
what is best for the State.

from the Santa Cruz end

Godfrey J I Gonsalves
Borda Margao Goa 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]





Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                    Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions                 |
|                                                                        |
|      Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages       |
|  Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls  |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply via email to