Selma,
While agreeing fully with you on this post, I have a question or two.
1.Earmarking of conservation zones will not hurt people who own certain
properties? How are they going to be brought into this net without hurting
them?
2. I have written about the concept of TDR (Transfer Development Rights). Is
this concept feasible at all? If no. Why? If Yes, what sort of restructuring
of the land-hold policy/s is necessary? On what basis should the zoning be
planned and executed so that i) Land owner does not lose and/or is
satisfied. ii) The building lobby is kept in good spirits. iii) Goa's
benefits completely in maintaining its basic character of greenery,
environment, ecology and it serene beauty.
3. Could there be any othe concept on the above lines or better? If Yes,
specify.
tks/rgds
floriano
goasuraj
PS: The agitational mode that Goa is getting into vis a vis mega projects,
SEZs et at al, it is apparent that there must be solutions too. Otherwise
this is going to be a merry go round as usual and after a while, with the
cooling of tempers and ideals, goans will go back to becoming sucegad
leaving no mark whatsoever on the devious planners, which is inevitably the
government of Goa that we have put in place. SOLUTIONS WE MUST LOOK FOR.
Conservation, as you have said, is no doubt the only solution. But how?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carvalho" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <goanet@lists.goanet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 5:26 PM
Subject: [Goanet] Conservation is the only solution to land grab
This post is prompted by Miguel's beatitudes for
successfully keeping land in Goan lands. As much as I
like Miguel, I'm afraid his solutions are akin to the
Vatican's policy on celibacy. It simply won't and
doesn't work, because if there are two things you can
count on in life, it is lust and greed. Neither of
them are sins when placed in their proper prospective.
You can't ask Goans to not sell their land to
outsiders. Even if you do appeal to the loyalty of the
current generation, you won't be able to do the same
with succeeding generations. How many people actually
cultivate their shett today? None. The same will
happen to an upwardly mobile, urban, city-loving Goan,
who will feel no compulsion to be tied to his land. He
will prefer to sell and move to cities as far as his
rupee will take him. This is human nature and this is
a global trend.
The only answer is legislation and conservation of the
type that Rajan is suggesting. Whole tracts of bhatts,
villages, shetts,bandhs (yes they are building on
bandhs), ponds, lakes, coastal areas and forest land
has to come up the purview of strict conservation
laws. These work magnificently in Europe and we must
study how they are put in place and go about forcing
our polity to institute them in Goa.
Mario is also right, the endless agitations will not
achieve much. They are a band-aid, if the more
pertinent mechanisms of conservation, zoning, building
restrictions, planning permits etc are not put in
place.
Having said that, Goa will also have to earmark land
for infrastructure and viable industry because land is
useless unless it can produce value and we can't
impoverish Goans perpetually by our short-sighted
policies.
selma
