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TRI Continental Film Festival - Dona Paula, Goa, Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2007
http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricontinental/tricon.htm
For public viewing
Registration at The International Centre Goa Ph: +91 (832) 2452805 to 10
Online Media Partner: http://www.GOANET.org
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How to Save Goa
By J C Almeida
It has been reported that in the workshop organised at Dona Paula, wherein
the Goa Bachao Andolan participated, the issue of the Town Planning Act, as
it exists at present, was discussed and it was decided that professionals
which include doctors, engineers, architects, chartered accountants and
others who form the important part of society should be associated in the
preparation of the Regional Plan of Goa. This is fine and is a good
decision. However, it is to be found how such a decision is to be
implemented, in practice.
As per the existing law, a Regional Plan can only be prepared under the Town
and Country Planning Act 1974 and not otherwise. As it is, at present,
section 9 of the Town and Country Planning Act states that the function of
preparation of Regional Plan is solely of the chief town planner who has to
submit the same for the consideration of the Board and thereafter invite
public objections. The law does not foresee the association of outside
professionals while preparing a Regional Plan. Since the workshop felt that
there is a need to associate professionals in the preparation of such a
Regional Plan, only amending the Act, to that effect, can do the same.
The Regional Plan is mere a broad demarcation plan of Goa, which has to
indicate the various aspects of development proposed in such a plan, after
having carrying the necessary surveys of physical, social and economic
conditions and potentialities of the area.
Based on such a Regional Plan, the government has to notify the area to be
known as "planning area" under the Act and the Planning and Development
Authority (know as PDA by general public) for the said area .The chairman of
such an authority is appointed by the government, and the vice-chairman is
appointed by the government from among its members. The Town Planning
Officer acts as the member secretary to the PDA. The PDA has representatives
of local authorities and five members appointed by the government having
special knowledge or practical experience in the subject (normally it is
found that such members are workers of the political Party in power). As per
the Act, the function of such PDA is basically to prepare an existing land
use map with land use register of every piece of land within the planning
area, outline development plan including comprehensive development plan and
other related matters.
Inside Town and Country
Planning Board
Section 4 of the Town and Country Planning Act, foresees the constitution of
a Town and Country Planning Board. The main functions of the said Board are
to guide, direct and assist the planning and development authorities. This
section does not specify that it has the function of preparation of Regional
Plan. However, subsection 8 (3) of the Act, empowers the Board to exercise
all such powers as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out the
functions of the Act.
The composition of the said Board is specified in section 4 (2) of the Act.
It provides that the minister in charge of Town and Country Planning shall
be the chairman of the Board and that the chief town planner shall be the
member secretary and one of the members is to be appointed as the
vice-chairman. The law also provides for the appointment of two MLAs and a
representative of GCCI, in addition to the secretaries to the government in
charge of Town Planning, local self-government, planning and industry,
including directors of agriculture, tourism, transport, health services,
PWD, statistics and forests. The law also provides for the appointment of
Central Government representatives dealing with railways, defence, transport
and tourism, who rarely attend the meetings of the Board. As far as State
government officials are concerned except for the town planning department,
no one can expect concrete contribution from them since not only do they not
make it a point to attend the meetings of the Board regularly, but also,
they have no time to apply their mind on the issues discussed, being busy
with their own work. The law also provides for the appointment of two
professionals. In the past, architects, engineers and other illiterates in
town planning but political workers of the Party in power, etc, having good
relations with the party in power, were appointed to the Board of Town and
Country Planning. However, though they were a meagre minority, they never
opened their mouths or applied their mind for if they opened their mouth and
make unpalatable suggestions they were shown their way. It has even been
reported that even the minutes of the Board meetings prepared by the member
secretary of the Board were manipulated at the instructions of chairman of
the Board, and other interested parties.
It can be seen that the Board is fully loaded only with officials of the
government and does not inspire confidence. If need be, the government
officials can always be invited, as invitees.
As stated earlier, since the Board, under the subsection 8 (3), has powers
to invoke to itself the preparation of the Regional Plan there is need to
amend section 4 of the Act, by incorporating that more than 50per cent of
the members of the Board should be drawn from private professionals,
recommended by leaders of the elected representatives of the parties, in the
Legislative Assembly. And, that the vice-chairman of the Board should always
be a professional. There is no need of having so many officials on the
Board, since, as said earlier, their contribution is negligible.
Curbing Corruption
Due to such important basic assignment foreseen for the PDA, sec 20(3) of
the Act is to be amended providing that the chairman of PDA should be an
architect, town planner or an engineer appointed by the government, in
consultation with the leaders of parties in the Legislative Assembly. Also,
sec 22 of the Act requires redrafting eliminating the unlimited powers given
to the government to give directions to the PDAs. Like this, there are
several other provisions of the Act that are to be amended to make them more
specific, insulated from the dictates from the government. In fact, when I
was the revenue secretary, in charge of Town Planning for a short time, I
had expressed to the then chief town planner that the Act would promote for
corruption and required to be amended. However, since the Act had already
become law nothing could be done. In addition to the forgoing amendments, a
provision should be made in the Act providing for criminal liability on the
officials of the government in case any approval is given deviating from the
approved Regional plan and other provisions of the Act.
Absence of Accountability
Sometime in the year 1974-75, on the request of the then union territory
government, the Town and Country Planning organisation of the union ministry
of works and housing had carried and prepared a survey of Goa with a view to
prepare a Regional Plan for Goa . The then chief town planner, after going
through the survey reports submitted by TCPO, had found that the same was
inadequate and therefore had suggested to the government the preparation of
a fresh appraisal of the Regional Plan for which several surveys were
carried out by the Goa's town planning department and a proposal for the
Regional Plan 1977-2001 was submitted to the government for approval. I
understand that the same was approved sometime in the year 1986. Thereafter,
in 2001, though sec 9 of the Act empowers only the chief town planner to
prepare Regional Plan, the government appointed a private agency, namely,
Consulting Engineers, New Delhi to prepare the Regional Plan which has been
bombarded by the Goa Bachao Andolan by mobilising the local people, due to
which the government has conveyed that it stands withdrawn with
retrospective effect There is a need to find out the meaning of the word
retrospective ie which date? 2001? Because, in the meantime, since the
validity of the earlier plan was over, the government has been availing of
sec 17 of the Act, directing the chief town planner to do the revision of
the earlier plan, on piece-meal basis. Due to this, several undesirable
decisions were taken and will be continued to be taken until the new the
Regional Plan is prepared, to please the bribing lobby. In the first place,
the chief Secretary of the government has to issue an order informing all
the concerned officials of the government, including PDAs, municipalities,
sarpanches and zila parishads to revoke any construction
licence/conversion/approval/approvals/letter issued under the Act and their
own Acts, after the date deemed to be retrospective date. Section 17 of the
Act also requires redrafting.
Vested Interests
Why the CTP did abdicate his responsibility to prepare a new Regional Plan
as per the Act, much before the lapse of the first Regional Plan, when it
had four times more town planners in his department for doing such work,
than when the first regional plan was prepared?
The fact remains that there is no accountability in the government. Pleasing
the Ministers is enough to survive in the government and obtain
extensions/reappointments in service.
Taking into account the vested interests at the levels of our elected
representatives who form Goa's Legislature, including those in the
Government in power and the surrender attitude of the bureaucracy, it will
be very difficult to undertake such a task of amending the Act as suggested
above. Yet, in case such proposed amendments to the Act are found to be
sensible, the GBA can study the Act and demand from the government to carry
the amendments to the Act.
Paradise in Peril
Goa is being seen as a paradise and everyone from outside is rushing to Goa
to purchase a piece of land, preferably on the beach side for residence,
hotels, restaurants, etc.
The diabolic tourism promotion done by the past governments, since 1981,
without preparing a plan and providing the required infrastructure has
created this situation and the lobby of builders and brokers from outside
armed with tonnes of unaccounted money to bribe everyone who holds the key
of respective power, including the landowners.
The statehood to Goa, with unlimited powers, has destroyed the old fabric of
Goa and promoted a new generation of rulers who want to be rich in no time
by extracting money from the citizens by misusing the powers given to them
by the law. New work force of migrant workers has been created and made to
settle in Goa to destroy the original beauty and peace of Goa. We have
reached a point of no return. A person from Goa, finally, is asking for whom
is the so called advertised development? When I learned that a person of the
stature of Mr Pronoy Roy, of NDTV is understood to have surrendered to pay a
sum of Rs 2.5 lakhs to the ex-sarpanch of Calangute, to pass his plans, in
spite of being advised not to do so, what should the common man do or
expect? Everyone wants to take short cuts and prefer paying bribes and than
claim that corruption is endemic in Goa. And now, due to the agitation in
Goa, the vested interests started working at the Central Government level to
grab and change the features of Goas's life, by preparing a Coastal Zone
Management Plan, under which the age old 500-meters line of the high tide is
proposed to be eliminated and substituted with more amenable yardsticks. Who
will help us? We lost faith in our elected representatives. Those in power
have lost all sense of ethics and moral values. They have created total
degeneration of society at large with bad examples. I fail to understand why
the work of the so called Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority cannot be
entrusted to the Town Planning department. Possibly the multiplication of
agencies/authorities help our elected representatives to manipulate and
achieve their unfortunate objectives.
Change the law
If the GBA wishes an effective implementation of their views to save Goa
from further disasters, the first demand that they should make with the
government is to issue an order by the government cancelling the
approvals/letters already issued from the appointed date, to stay further
processing of any application for land/construction request under the Act
and the Panchayat/Municipality Acts, amend the Town Planning Act on priority
basis. And on the basis of the amended Act demand the preparation of a fresh
Regional Plan. It should be a time bound program with time bound reporting
on the action taken failing which punitive action should follow. If there is
a will in the government, this can be achieved in short time.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=090949
