The Accidental Activist - It's a thriller By Venita Coelho
Whew! I finally did it. Actually sat down and read the Regional Plan 2021. I expected to have to wade through pages of legalese and babu-ese. Instead it was a thriller. In crisp clean wording it called a spade a spade and suggested a series of radical changes. In its own words - 'Solid waste management is one of the biggest failures of the administration in Goa'. On tourism - 'initiatives are taken in spurts and are forgotten.' On building in villages - 'should not consist of massive developments or aggressive tower blocks.' RP2021 points out that 80% of tourists to Goa are Indians, yet the majority of the advertising budget is spent chasing low price charter tourists. It makes the radical suggestion 'one years advertising budget should be used to clean up Goa's beaches, and provide the desperately needed infrastructure in those areas. This will earn more goodwill for Goa . than any advertising budget would deliver.' Mining comes in for a scathing indictment for 'long term environmental damage being caused' and 'comparatively limited overall economic benefit to the state'. Here's a nasty little fact. While mining uses up 8% of Goa's land mass which it lays to utter waste, how much does it contribute to the Goan kitty? A miserable 4%. Manufacturing on the other hand contributes 25% of the GDP and uses up only 2% of Goa's land mass. The plan suggests that the time has come for the Government ' to take a holistic view of the problem and heal the huge damage done to the communities living in these areas.' And on the delicate question of migrants the Plan suggests that we will have to make a distinction between those who have 'no long term stake in this land' and have contributed to the destruction to it's landscape, and those who ' have added so much value to the quality of life in Goa - and it's economy.' It believes 'that in this attitude lies sanity - and the future of the land.' The plan repeatedly points out that Goa is fragile and development and conservation are 'complementary indicators of growth'. It is clear that its mandate is to provide 'development in the context of conservation.' To do this it makes two dramatic and far reaching changes. First the new division of ECO1 and ECO2 are introduced. If properly implemented, almost 80% of Goa falls in these two categories. ECO1 is a total no development zone. Conversion will be allowed in ECO 2 only under the strictest rules. All land coming under these two categories will be protected. The second radical change is the new allocation of FAR. Floor to Area Ratio defines how much you can actually build on your land. Overall the FAR has been brought down. But even more pathbreaking- the more land you have, the lower the FAR and the less you can build. So if FAR is 60 for plots beneath 4000 sq. mts, for those above it comes down to 40. This is specifically to avoid the curse of mega projects. For the common man it suggests that totally different rules apply to building for personal use. Any plot under 350 sq mts gets a blanket FAR of 80 and further, a simple one window process for all permissions. So what's the problem? Between the sweeping changes and vision that are outlined in the RP2021 and the on-the-ground reality somehow falls a shadow. Take Pilerne. The Google Map of Pilerne shows the lake with dense woods surrounding it. On the draft RP2021 plan the area is shown correctly as orchard and ECO2. By the time the village map has been sent out, one shore has suddenly become settlement. Many such shadows are being discovered as villages study their plans. The second problem is the process. In an attempt to avoid the mass protests that lead to the withdrawal of the last plan, the TF has devised what it calls 'down top alongside top down planning'. Unfortunately the process ends up being neither here nor there. The people are presented with a full fledged plan - and a questionnaire that will somehow reflect their 'aspirations'. Proper bottom up planning would have meant that the village plans came first, created by the villagers, then district plans and lastly the RP. Now we have some retro fitting, and nobody is quite sure how this will be done. So is it a good plan? A bad plan? On such an important issue don't let anyone else make up your mind for you. Go ahead and read it yourself. It's a page turner. (ENDS) ============================================================================== The above article appeared in the December 23, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
