A Day of Catharsis for Town Planners by Nandkumar Kamat IT was a day of catharsis, introspection and confession for the governments town planners. The town planners were opening their minds in a fearless and tension-free environment and the Chief Secretary himself was sitting and taking down notes. The presence of a legal luminary, senior advocate, Mr Manohar Usgaonkar ensured a business-like atmosphere. It seems that the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat had given a free hand to his officers in the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department whose morale seemed to have sunk in the past few years. It was expected to be a participatory exercise but the seminar on the review of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974, organised by the TCP department on October 13 at the Secretariat conference hall, seemed to have been a closed-door affair for reasons best known to the government. The government has no business to confine such important deliberations only to the town planners, architects, few organisations and individuals. At the end of the seminar, I urged the chief town planner, Mr Murad Ahmad not to discontinue the review process but take it to the people in all the talukas and involve all the stakeholders whose lives would be affected by legislative changes. Unfortunately, despite being a serious student of Goas socio-economic and ecological transformation, I had to get myself invited at the last minute. The Chief Minister had to issue instructions in this regard. Immediately after the seminar, I called to compliment him for bringing a refreshing air to the TCP department. The seminar could not achieve much in terms of delimiting the policy parameters of the legislative reforms. The government itself is spread out so thin that projects are planned without clear policies and legislations are made without valuable inputs from the public. As expected, the department did not disclose to the delegates that they had shelved the draft model Town and Country Planning Act, 1998 which was sent by the Union ministry of urban affairs and employment for adoption. Mr Morad Ahmad had no idea why the government could not proceed with that model act in 1998. But the town planners know it very well that the politicians would not permit any dilution of their control over land use planning. Although some of the paper presenters paid token lip service to the implications of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments - almost everyone forgot that the stage had a portrait of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi smiling mischievously at them. Perhaps the great soul was imploring the town planners and the scattered NGO representatives to do some serious soul searching. Goa already has a huge socio-economic divide between the culturally rich but underdeveloped and economically backward new conquest talukas and the economically developed, affluent old conquest talukas. This divide would further widen because there is no stopping of the juggernaut of urbanisation. The seminar could not throw any light on the problems and consequences of unsustainable urbanisation. The Chief Minister made a statement about his governments sincerity in appointing a task force to frame the new regional plan. But the town planners themselves know that the task force is basically a political farce because none of the members except Mr Edgar Ribeiro have any practical knowledge or experience of making regional plans. Many are not even aware of the process which led to the final draft report of RP-2011 in September 2003. There were nine presentations in the seminar but only one or two had some substance. At the end of the seminar, it was clear that the town planners did not have a clear political mandate to review the success or failure of RP-2001 and the reasons for lack of tangible, time-bound progress over preparation of Outline Development Plans (ODPs), Comprehensive Developmental Plans (CDPs) and Town Planning Schemes (TPS). Goa has 380 revenue villages and 45 census towns. When the government was approached by the Union governments National Informatics Centre (NIC) for their ambitious computerised District Information System of NIC project, there was no enthusiasm for meaningful co-operation; DISNIC aims to prepare complete knowledge bases of Goas villages and towns with community participation. Such exercises are important for policy, legislative and administrative reforms. But the seminar did not have any representative from the NIC centre, Goa. Such gaps are detrimental for good decision making. My own assessment of the Goan political culture shows that although nearly perfect and model legislations can be prepared and passed, their efficient enforcement is subject to several selfish trade-offs. Popular agitations like the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) tend to expose these trade-offs and bring out the externalities to the surface. Nature and people pay a heavy price for these externalities. Between September 2003 to August 2006, a few pages in the RP-2011 final report were changed because such trade-offs were influencing decision making. Would the evil go away if a better law is passed? That depends on our success in educating and empowering the voters of Goa. The seminar could not take a stand on the culture of corruption, malpractices and mismanagement. There was no unequivocal declaration to uphold the spirit of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment, although the Chief Minister spoke out his mind stressing on separate roles for the planning and the licensing authorities. Apparently, he feels that the local authorities would make the procedures simple for the aam adami. His views may not be shared by the MLAs who are reluctant to empower the district planning committees, panchayats and municipalities. This can be verified from their election manifestos. Interestingly, the idea of legislative reforms like the demand for amendments to the existing TCP act, 1974 has come from the activists who are totally inexperienced in such business. The 189 village panchayats and 13 municipal councils are totally in dark about the governments moves on amending the TCP act, 1974. Therefore, I had consistently suggested that the 1998 unbiased draft model TCP act could be made a basic document for public discussion. Legislative reforms need to match policy and administrative reforms. It is my well-studied and considered opinion that it is impractical to enact a new or amended TCP act unless Goa has in place 1) state natural resources management policy 2) state surface utilisation (land use) policy 3) state policy on sustainable urbanisation 4) state housing policy doing justice to the shelterless Goans 5) state infrastructure development policy 6) state policy on privatisation and public private participation (PPP) 7) state rehabilitation policy for Goans displaced by developmental projects. Without a slew of such policies, seminars and task forces would be expensive and meaningless exercises. http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=101524
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