If you cannot sell the proposition in Goa then do it via Delhi. The malyalee fish monger and his lobsters have not been able to sell the RP-2021 to the goan crabs on behalf of Digambar and his builders. The goan crabs have refused to bite it and instead have bitten those very people who have betrayed the goan cause. So Digambar's baton with his RP2021 Special Task Force is now slated to arrive in Delhi on 18th September 2010 and will be received the Goenkarancho Ekvott. Minus the speaker Mathany Saldanha and the chair for one session Dr. Peter Rony, it is hard to notice any other that does not directly or indirectly tow the builder /real estate developer agenda in presenting the USP of the RP2021 before supposedly goan masses to get their stamp of approval and market it back to the people in Goa. It is like a cat covering its shit. What is simply misleading is the fact that this RP-2021 process is being hailed as 'participatory'. The note of Goenkarancho Ekvott states; "it is first time spatial planning and land use is being determined with people's participation from the village level upwards." Merely sending down pre-determined settlement fencing maps and road lay outs (designed by those with vested interests in real estate) to the Village Panchayats for suggestions and corrections cannot be claimed to be participatory planning from the village level upwards. It could be remotely considered as 'participatory consultation' on RP2021. Where are the village socio-economic plans prepared under this RP2021 so called participatory process? The RP 2021 is a fraud. It may be participatory for architects, engineers, real estate developers and planners in safe-guarding their long-term business interests from the national builders/real estate developers and nothing more. That is why some of the torch-bearers of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan in 2006 are today busy erecting or supporting massive gated projects in the villages and have even disputed the right of Gram Sabhas to decide on spatial plans and the type of development in their villages. They do not mind the local Devashri's, Sapna's, CD's, mosiacs and others from developing on hill slopes, all they are concerned about is obstructing DLF and Raheja by cheering unsuspecting desperate villagers. This RP2021 cannot be claimed to be in consonance with article 243ZD of the Constitution of India. Even the consultative process carried out in villages has no legal status. There were no notified guidelines. The forwarding letter from the CTP was vague and interpreted by the representative planners as per the interests they wished to protect. At least 50% of the village Gram Sabhas in Goa are in the dark on this process. It were the local MLAs and Sarpanchas that nominated a committee and sent in their suggestions without consulting the Gram Sabha. That is why the government is now contemplating to release the RP 2021 in phases and taluka-wise so that there is no major out-burst. The entire process continues under the very same primitive and obsolete TCP Act of 1975 that gave birth to a monstrous RP 2011. Except that the 'Monster Rat' has now been replaced by 'Monster Foxes'. There are no 'District Development Plans' in place. What is in place is a plan to ensure the future loot and ransacking of the villages of Goa and infusing migrants in gated housing complexes. This is a road map on how Goans will be reduced to ancient specimens by 2021 for migrant site seeing. It is an investment map for the Ramani's, Lamani's, Jaitley's, Chauhan's, Tariqs and the rest. Concerned Goans in Delhi and elsewhere need to take a close look at the RP 2021process which is being marketed to them as 'Unique' if they are to understand the 'Picnic' of architects, engineers, builders and bureaucrat planners in this deceptive RP.
-Soter D'Souza
