<Goa Bachao Abhiyan has finally broken its silence over theinterim report of the task force on Regional Plan 2021, statingthat the methodology adopted by the panel in its preparation was'fundamentally flawed' and the government's move to amend the Townand Country Planning Act, 1974, was **an attempt to bring ingovernment projects through the backdoor**....theGBA has demanded that the Bill be withdrawn or amended to **definethe meaning of "public projects/schemes/development worksundertaken by the central or state government"**....Instead of a socialaudit of RP 2001 and RP 2011 and an analysis of up-todatestatistics and analysis also of the state's major and mediumdevelopmental initiatives, the interim report is filled withassumptions, he said.>
This criticism puts the Mopa project squarely in the line of fire. It is supposed to be a Rs 1300 crore PPP project with a government (state and central) component of about Rs 300 crores. How many state and/or central projects are there in Goa which are bigger than this? Even in the case of the SEZ agitation, nobody realised that the original 1962 "SEZ", Dabolim naval air base, was bigger in area than all the 15 combined! Talk about myopia or visual impairment! Goa seems to have it in spades. Maybe a case of a severe mental block of some kind.
