Press Release 6/5/15 Panaji Goa
The AAP is concerned about the arbitrary manner in which the Government seeks to implement the Regional Plan. After first threatening to scrap it and then keeping it in abeyance for 3 years it has decided to implement it without any system, however only after 'consulting' its BJP MLAs. This amounts to a betrayal of the people in not addressing the genuine concerns of the people about the plan. MLA's inputs will only work for short term vote banks, and not with any long term vision. The positives of the Regional Plan need to be retained. It was a first attempt to clearly map and protect the Eco Sensitive zones of Goa such as fields, forests, water bodies, slopes while reducing the FARs in villages to protect them from speculative development. Even as this has been respected in the Government Order, a number of projects are being cleared under the 2021 plan on a “case to case” basis, violating Eco Zones. While the decision to implement the plan is welcome, any corrections to the plan need to follow certain procedures. 1. A proper documentation of all the objections to the plan done village wise, sorting out the genuine issues from the more personal requests for extra settlement area. 2. Only deletion of settlement area to be done in cases where it violates eco zones or where the scale of the new settlement area is not in conformity with projected village growth. 3. Road widths based on ground reality and not on proposed road lines as shown on the Regional Plan (especially dotted one). 4. Deletion of Eco Tourism Zones which are scams where big investors have bought large tracts of land and attempted to smuggle their projects into the plan under the guise of Eco Tourism. (The Terekhol project which has been stayed recently for violation of eco zone is a clear example of this). 5. Reframing of MIZ (Micro Industrial Zone) as purely Village Work Areas and scaling down to only include village industries for locals. 6. Farm houses in Orchard Zone need to be kept only ground floor and in the true spirit of an agriculture based dwelling with a maximum of 5% of a minimum 4,000 sq mt plot and maximum 10,000sq mt plot. The Town Planning is attempting to double this FAR under the guise of eco houses by stipulating additional gimmicks like solar panels. 7. No FAR increase beyond what is stipulated in the plan. The Town Planning is randomly giving 50% extra FAR to Educational, Healthcare and IT buildings without studying the impact of this additional FAR. The additional 20% FAR to 4 and 5 star hotels is also another gimmick to cover up violations. 8. Outline Development Plans currently function as a separate entity from the Regional Plan which is a disaster as it doesn't follow any logic of Eco Zone or planned development. Outline Development Plans (ODPs) are nothing but a plan in more detail. The Town Planning department is quietly trying to separate ODPs from the Regional Plan so they can apply ODPs even to village areas and subversively increase FAR without referring to the Regional Plan. 9. Review the village plans where the plan prepared by the village committee has been superseded by a Panchayat plan in “consultation” with the local MLA. 10. Removal of mining areas from the plan only keeping those that fulfill the Supreme Court directives of ecological protection and mining cap of 20 MT per year. 11. Undertake implementation of the proposed economic drivers of waterways, improving inner loop road serving the old mining belt and connecting it to the golden quadrilateral, doubling the railway line etc 12. Reviewing Mopa airport in the light of public opposition and major land scams by politicians. Also acknowledging the fact that Dabolim airport can easily double its capacity even with Navy presence. Sincerely, Arch. Dean D'Cruz AAP Goa