* Goa Bachao Abhiyan*
c/o 77, Defence Colony, Alto Porvorim-Goa [email protected] www.savegoa.com GBA/2013-14/1-2 10th Jan, 2014 *Press Note* GBA condoles the death of people in the Ruby Residency building collapse which resulted due to corruption and Government apathy to the complaints given by locals about illegalities. *Members of the GBA visited the site on Tuesday to assess the manner of illegalities that led to this tragedy.* Human rights violations abound at every possible level regarding the workers who have paid for it with their lives. Local residents who complained of encroachment on their fields by the same builders were intimidated, clearly establishing the nexus between builder, officers of municipality, town planning, lawyers, and police. The anger of locals over Government’s priority for political rallies instead of addressing issues of Regional Plan, illegalities and corruption was palpable. Transgressions were painfully obvious at both Regional Plan level and construction regulation level. The Chaudi building collapse is symptomatic of a collapse in the governance of the state. The Regional Plan status has been kept ambiguous so that builders could commit illegalities with the active connivance of the Government and its machinery. Statements that they were not aware of what was happening on ground is a blatant lie intended to protect criminals. GBA has received several complaints of illegalities which has been documented and brought to the notice of authorities with no action taken. Each act of subversion of regulation is an act of corruption and lays the foundation for tragedy. The Chaudi building collapse should not be treated as an end in itself but calls for those in the administration and elected representatives to pause and reflect what level of humanity they wish to operate on. *Directly relating to planning and land use were several damning issues -* 1 - How does a 5 storey building come up where only three storeys are allowed? Slopes are popular for this type of violation as three storeys are measured as height from ground level. Builders take the highest ground as their ground level for passing plans, and proceed to place minus levels below as the slope goes downhill. Lifts with 'minus 1' and 'Ground' way before the first floor indicate the popular violations happening with deliberate 'oversight' from the Town & Country Planning. This has to stop. 2 - In their quest for height to look over the Mamlatdars office to the sea, the builders extended the 'height' of their ground level onto a low lying field adding almost 3 floors of rubble on soft ground. Filling low lying fields is an Eco-Zone violation, however adding 3 floors of land fill is overkill. In addition, the building encroached on another owners paddy field and despite complaints (*Annex 1a & 1b)*, this was ignored. The owner instead was harassed. 3 - The approach to the multi-storey Ruby Residency is through roads which converge into less than 6m. While the existing units may have been cleared before the court order on minimum access width of 11/1/2010 *( Annex 2a&2b )*, how have the new clearances for extensions happened using the same approach roads? 4 - This entire violation has happened in an ODP area ( Outline Development Zone ), which is a time bomb of tragedies waiting to happen as ODP's till date do not come under the Regional Plan. This has been GBA's demand for 'One Goa, One Plan' as well as that of our Chief Minister before he assumed power. These ODP's have come to stand for duplicity, or Outline Duplicity Plans, a play ground of builders and ministers at the cost of the public. 5. Technical faults and substandard work was evident, with occupancy certificate given without assessment. Even while the builders are absconding, another project is coming up at Nagarscem, hardly a km away from Ruby Residency. Rampant hill cutting for another multi-storey building called Bharat Heights has irked local residents as they now fear flooding due to disturbed ecological systems *( Annex 3 ).* *More advantages for builders in the offing despite this tragedy?* The GBA states that development of the state is for well being of its people and conserving the balance of environment. However the only development the Government understands is addition of more concrete in a piecemeal fashion, such as addition of 20% FAR to hotels without looking at the larger picture of approach roads and infrastructure. Each Clerk down the line has echoed this greed, with terrible results. Despite such a tragic outcome of this attitude, we understand that the TCP department with blessings from the minister plans to add insult to injury by allowing more farmhouses per acre of orchard land, rendering the meaning of 'Orchard' pointless. This is clearly for the advantage of builders again for whom settlement FAR is still not enough. Worse, there is no need to get a conversion sanad in the case of orchard constructions as the status of 'farm' remains unchanged, it will be a final destruction of the environment. The GBA calls upon the Government to heed this warning and not dabble in piecemeal approaches for short term gains. Greed cannot be condoned by allowing more sops in builders favor. Such actions show that no lessons have been learnt from the tragedy. The GBA will shortly release yet another set of violations by the TCP department in addition to the Baga Hill permissions shown last week. These pertain to slopes and the Regional Plan. If the Government is sincere it must act on these and pull up erring officials. THE GBA DEMANDS ACTION AS A CLEAR MESSAGE TO OFFENDERS - 1. Immediate arrests and speedy trial to convict all responsible in this criminal act. 2. Penalize erring officials as soon as knowledge of the corrupt act comes to light and not feign ignorance till the inevitable breakdown. 3. Stop all mega projects where illegalities have come to light. 4. Set up a proper committee for finalizing guidelines and rework the Regional Plan to include proper slopes, water bodies and Eco-Zones and do not tamper with the Regional Plan in a piecemeal way. 5. Plug loopholes in the building regulations such as the issue of allowing 'Minus' floors to increase a 3 storey building to a 5 storey one. 6. Include ODP's in the Regional Plan, following the same regulations applicable to Eco-Zones. The GBA calls on citizens to bring forward documentation of illegalities regarding land use and the Regional Plan in their areas so that the concerned authorities and press may be intimated, and a dossier be kept for further action. Sabina Martins Reboni Saha Convenor, GBA Secretary, GBA
