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January 22,2007
De-notify Regional Plan: Goa Church
GOA (ICNS) -- Even as the Goa state assembly is
meeting for its winter session starting today, the
Catholic Church has come out with a strong appeal to
de-notify the controversial Regional Plan 2011 with
retrospective effect.
The growing chorus is expected to make the state
assembly meeting tumultuous.
The Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), the
social wing of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman,
issued a statement saying, As early as November 2006,
the Council corresponded with authorities concerned of
the Town and Country Planning Department asking for
relevant material to study the Draft of Regional Plan
for Goa 2011.
The CSJP then asked a former chief planner of the
Government of India to study the plan and comment. He
pointed out the flaws in the document and offered
practical suggestions. These were given to the
government by the Council. In the follow-up, the
Council continued to persist with the government at
all levels that the RP 2011 was not acceptable and
should be redone because it was grossly faulty, the
CSJP statement said.
The CSJP was appealing for the de-notification with
retrospective effect because it was fully convinced
that all wrong should be rectified at the roots.
Activists and political leaders have been accusing the
state government of initiating a plan that would
convert Goa into a crowded concrete jungle. The
Regional Plan envisages changes in rules to allow
commercial and residential constructions in coastal
areas.
Under mounting pressure, the government de-notified it
but the Church and others opposing it are demanding
de-notification with retrofit effect from August 2006.
Cip
