----- Original Message -----
From: Antonio Lobo
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 10:43 PM
Subject: Press Note - Mapusa Nagrikancho Ekvott (MNE)
PRESS STATEMENT
FOR FAVOUR OF PUBLICATION
MAPUSA NAGRIKANCHO EKVOTT protests in no uncertain terms the final
notification of the O.D.P for the city of Mapusa which was notified despite
the fact that the representatives of this Association, who had met the Chief
Minister on 3.10.2008 to whom a memorandum was submitted on the same day
regarding that draft O.D.P, had been promised by the Chief Minister that the
modified draft O.D.P would be made available for inspection prior to its
notification and that the representatives should meet the Chief Town
Planner. After several requests, both oral and in writing (on 16.10.08)
proved futile the Chief Minister was informed by letter dated 3.11.08 that
the inspection had not been given. Simultaneously on 3.11.08 the Chief Town
Planner was again asked to provide an inspection of the modified draft. On
7.11.08 the Town planner advised us in writing to inspect the plan at the
office of the North Goa P.D.A. Again the same story that was experienced at
the Town Planner’s office was repeated at the P.D.A by the representatives
of this Association. On 5.12.08 this Association therefore requested in
writing that an inspection be provided but nothing was heard from the P.D.A
and therefore personal visits were made to that office several times to
request an inspection. Finally on 21.1.09 the Chairman of the P.D.A Mr.
Nilkanth Halarnkar consented to meet a delegation of this Association.
However, when the modified draft plan was sought to be inspected, the
Chairman refused to show it to the delegation. There was no reaction from
the Chief Minister’s office to the complaint dated 3.11.08.
This Association subsequently learnt that the draft was slated to be
notified on the next day i.e. 22.1.09, yet the chairman of the P.D.A did not
have the courtesy to inform the delegation that the plan was going to be
notified the next day.
This Association is pained to see that the notified plan is worse than the
proposed draft plan in the sense that great swathes of land which at present
are agricultural lands have been earmarked for high-value, high density
commercial zoning(C1 =200%), medium (C2=150%) and settlement. Also C2 areas
have been marked within the settlement residential zones and present
settlement zones have been coloured as C2 zones. None of the proposals made
by the citizens of Mapusa have been accepted and on the contrary C1 and C2
areas have been increased indiscriminately.
The city of Mapusa and its citizens have been given all along a
step-motherly treatment by the Government of Goa. The city is deteriorating
day by day. The city’s arteries are clogged and congested, there is no place
for the people to walk in safety. There is no park or garden where the
elderly or the very young can be taken to breathe in the air in safety.
Instead of looking into these aspects the Government has seen fit to satisfy
the unquenchable thirst of vested interests for lucre at any cost by
concreting the city even more than it already is.
The Mapusa Nagrikancho Ekvott hereby warns the Government that the Citizen
of Mapusa and Bardez has had enough and unless the Government denotifies the
plan and freezes all approvals immediately the citizen will be forced to
come out on the roads in protest and whatever may follow will only be the
outcome of the callous and uncaring attitude shown by our so-called
representatives who do not seem to know the meaning of the word “Democracy”.
Adv. Antonio Lobo
(Convenor)
