Draft RP now under state panel review PANAJI: Though the last day for village panchayats and municipal bodies to submit their suggestions on the draft Regional Plan 2021 ended June 15, the state level monitoring committee headed by the chief minister will consider alternatives to bring grassroots bodies who were unable to participate in the loop.
The panel comprising town planner Edgar Ribeiro and architects Charles Correa and Dean D'Cruz among others, is likely to meet soon to decide the strategy to proceed with the planning process, sources said. "As of now, information is not available as to how many local bodies have not participated in the planning process. The committee will take up the issue and decide a strategy to help them," S T Putturaju, senior town planner, Town and Country Planning, said. Around 115 VPs and five municipal bodies have submitted their plans, but an update on Monday was not available. Many panchayats from hinterland areas are among those who either did not initiate the planning process or abandoned it later. Meanwhile, the TCP has started tabulating individual requests for land use change. "We are expecting around 8,000 comments from individuals," Putturaju said. Assuring transparency, he added, "Every person will know what has happened to his application." As for complaints of some panchayats being handicapped by lack of technical support, Putturaju said that 18 architects who had volunteered to provide assistance had been impaneled. "We had sent a circular to all panchayats with the required information to contact them," he explained. Sources, in the meantime, told TOI that the TCP will sift through the plans and submissions and errors and discrepancies will be rectified. "In some cases, the entire village has been shown as a settlement area or many have even excluded existing settlements," sources said. Assuring transparency and accessibility of information in the planning process online, Putturaju said disputes between elected representatives of panchayats and villagers would be resolved in a democratic manner. "Both parties will be heard to sort out disputes. A mediating approach will be needed and to arrive at conclusions they will have to cut down issues among themselves," he said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Goa/Draft-RP-now-under-state-panel-review/articleshow/4660263.cms
