RP 2021
December 28, 2015
GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRESS NOTE
GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT is an umbrella organization of various
active citizen groups, who believe that a sound Regional Plan based on
sustainability and needs of the people according to the 73rd and 74th
amendment, is the best way to protect Goa against the ravages of
unsustainable and predatory development that the state is now witnessing.
GSD said that the government’s attitude towards the people with respect to
RP 2021 and the Regional Plan itself, has conclusively proved that until the
73rd and 74th amendments were incorporated into a new TCP Act, people’s
participation in the Regional Plan would never be a reality but would leave
Goa open and extremely vulnerable to the machinations of vested interests.
Hence any Regional Plan prepared without constitutional validity being given
to people’s participation through a new TCP Act constituted on the
foundation of the 73rd and 74th amendments could certainly not find
acceptance with the people.
In fact the State Government’s intention to surreptitiously keep the people
out of the Planning process is apparent from the fact that the people’s
suggestions and objections to the RP 2021 have already been painstakingly
worked out and handed to the TCP when this RP was first proposed during
Digambar Kamat’s tenure as CM. Yet even as the present government makes no
attempt to incorporate the people’s suggestions in the RP 2021 it has
inexplicably opened the Plan for further objections and suggestions by the
people. Again, if the government is serious about people’s participation,
does it really think that one month in the height of the festive and tourism
season is an adequate time frame for the people?
In any case, a Regional Plan which keeps out ODP areas and is based on
extremely inadequate and outdated data, can certainly not stand the test of
scrutiny since the development of one place can have a serious impact on
another. For example, the tribulations of Margao’s sewage is presently being
borne by the innocent villagers of Navelim. Similarly, no study has been
conducted on the eco sensitivity of the Mopa plateau area, which abuts the
Western Ghats World Heritage site before earmarking 80 lakh sq. metres of
land for a second airport that will concretise and block 46 perennial
springs and destroy a wealth of ecology in a state that has now begun
suffering from water shortages.
It has also been observed that the Chief Town Planner has arbitrarily added
large tracts of land as settlement in a number of villages, which have not
been recommended by the people, even as existing settlement areas with
longstanding homes, have been inexplicably changed to green, thus giving the
false impression that settlement areas have not been increased significantly
in RP 2021. Tenanted agricultural lands are shown in settlement zones,
threatening the tenants with displacement, only for profits for builders.
Forests, low-lying areas, water bodies and rich agricultural lands are
marked for destruction for real estate, tourism or industries.
The BJP’s 2012 election manifesto clearly stated that “Regional Plan will be
scrapped and a new one to be drawn up with people’s participation in a
transparent manner”. In August 2014, the then Chief Minister Manohar
Parrikar, referring to the TCP in the Assembly declared “Against how many
people can I take action, I will have to empty the whole department... not a
single town planner will be left in the department, everyone's name is
tainted with something or the other... I am saying it".
GSD said that its study corroborates what the BJP said before it came to
power. The RP 2021 needs to be scrapped and there appears to be a strong
basis for ex Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s allegation of the
overwhelming taint in the TCP department. In the circumstances, how can the
Government even consider such a Regional Plan?
GSD therefore demands that the Government fulfil its election promise of
scrapping the contentious RP 2021 and creating a new Plan based on a solid
democratic foundation, wherein the people can truly participate, to ensure
that Goa does not become another Chennai or Uttarakhand, or join the ranks
of India’s drought ridden states, which will put the lives and livelihood of
the people in jeopardy if a recklessly and arbitrarily constructed Regional
Plan is accepted to suit the machinations of vested interests.
Hence GSD demands the following :
1. RP 2021 be denotified and a moratorium be put on all constructions
except single family dwellings
2. 73rd and 74th amendments be implemented in a New Act for sustainable
planning and development
3. Carry out all relevant studies and present data to the people to
prepare a new Regional Plan
For GOANS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Eremito Rebelo, Judith Almeida, Ramkrishna Jalmi Abhijit
Prabhudesai,
