RP 2021 A Bundle Of Mischief And Confusion The notified RP2021 can be summed as a bundle of mischief and confusion by our Authorities and everyone is wondering, why did our Authorities do it ? When the draft RP 2021 was placed before the people there was a huge cry from the people that it was not acceptable to them, so then the Authorities were forced to start the tedious participatory process wherein village by village, ward by ward the draft RP 2021 was scrutinized, anomalies were located and discarded and approved proposals by the Gram Sabhas were submitted to the Authorities. Unfortunately for reasons best known to them the presently notified RP2021 has not only failed to infuse the approved appropriate proposals of the Gram Sabhas but have added even more anomalies to the draft RP 2021.
Now all over Goa, almost every village has sounded bugle of rejection and most Gram Sabhas are asking for the scrapping of the notified RP 2021 altogether. No doubt there are a lot of anomalies in the notified RP2021 but the three major problems being, the width of the roads in villages, the absence of "sensitivity" in the eco sensitive zones and the expansions and extensions of settlement zones onto agricultural lands or eco-sensitive agricultural areas. A lot of our main roads are not even ten meters so people at large are lost for words and thoughts as to why Goans need ten meter plus roads that could cause extensive and irreversible damage to the ecology and environment of our villages ? The answer clearly points to the Real Estate cartel that our Authorities and the TCP seem to favour for reasons known. It is also stated that a lot of agricultural land were no development was requested has now somehow been included in settlement zones thus further cementing the fact that the notified RP2021 is a builders based project rather than it being people based. When our people demand that our fields and other Agricultural land needs to be protected and preserved, how can our Authorities Change that land to Settlement zones ? It all points in one direction only, politicians-builders nexus and the TCP headed by our CM as the major player in the debacle. A lot of Goans are also horrified to note that most of the previously mentioned "Eco Sensitive Zones" have some how been changed to Eco Zones thus getting rid of the sensitivities of the eco zones. Some will say what is the difference, aren't they still Eco Zones ? If there is no difference why change it, shouldn't they stick to the same old term ? Let me be specific here, the sensitivity of eco zones cannot be tampered with, they are highly sensitive, so they need extra protection and this notified RP2021 does not provide that protection to eco zones, even the central government is known to play with words, as inclusion or exclusion of a word or two can change the meaning of a term or statement drastically. Let me give an example, does any one have pre 70's printed Indian Currency notes ? If you have, check it with the post 70's printed notes, yes, the width will be different, the newer ones are slimmer, can't blame the Reserve Bank, today size "0" is in fashion, even our no tes need to keep up with times. The quality of the paper is also different; the older notes were of better paper quality. May be the print too will be different but the most important difference will be in what's written on the notes. The old ones will read as "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of (the denomination of the note) Rupees ON DEMAND signed by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India but on the newer notes the "ON DEMAND" will be missing, it only reads "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of (the denomination of the note) Rupees" signed by the governor. I was told by an economist whom I once met that "on demand" on the currency note makes a huge difference, when, in case of National emergency, the Government needs liquidity and asks for our notes, we have no choice we have to give, the Government is then bound by the promise to compensate in kind the value of the note "on demand" or else we cannot demand to be compensated, so it's becomes just a promise to compensate, like the many our own politicians have been making for the last five decades. So a word or two can make a huge difference to a term or a statement. So now if the apex Financial Authority of the Country fiddles with words, why not the local Authorities ? I am now sure we Goans did not have a clue, of what we were getting into when we believed that Goa was liberated and not annexed by India. Getting back to the RP2021, some people say we should not reject the notified RP2021 but demand the changes that we asked for, well, did we not ask for changes after the draft of the RP2021 which was followed by the tedious participatory process, how many times do we have to follow the same process ? The rejection of the people's demands by the Authorities clearly establishes the fact that they do not want to accept what the people want. So how do we seek a change ? The intensions of our Authorities are very clear; they do not want to commit to the RP so they are just playing a game to delay the process so that mega projects and mining can continue unabated while we try to negotiate. There is absolutely no doubt that we do need a RP but it should be what the people want and by any language Goans have clearly told the Authorities what they want and even then if they do not seem to understand then the only option is to bring down the Government. In a democracy it is said that the Government is of the people, by the people and FOR the people and if it isn't FOR the people then it has no moral right to be in power, stop, end of subject. Ek do, ek do Digambar Kamat-ko phek do ! Freddy Agnelo Fernandes ##################################################################################### Effective from 15th Dec 2011, Our Server will accept emails only from the domain which has valid PTR Record, for more info please click at http://www.emaar.com/pdf/it/PTR_Record_Information.pdf Kindly send this information to your local IT Team in your company for necessary actions. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The content of this electronic communication is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and any others who are specifically authorized to receive it. It may contain confidential or legally privileged information. 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