Even before the proposed Town & Country Planning’s bill with amendments could even be floored for discussions, it was withdrawn by the BJP ruled state government. There was a lot of hue & cry amongst the citizens as the bill was alleged to have limitations when it comes to approaching the judiciary. There were awareness campaigns conducted by activist where in they detailed what this bill could do!
Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) and Swapnesh Sherlekar (Social Activist) organized a session regarding this proposed TCP Bill on Sunday evening. Tahir Noronha (Architect) along with Swapnesh gave an hour long presentation on how many lands underwent Zone changes. Around 300 concerned citizens attended this session and were shocked to see the chagnes done till now, most of them, which they claimed, happened in the last 3/4 years!
The land that underwent zone changes include agriculture, green zones, non development slopes, industrial etc. Lakhs of square meter of such land was converted to settlement zone or proposed to convert to settlement zone, as per their presentation, which was now open for construction. Not only shall this change the demography but would also hit the carrying capacity of this state.
In the assembly, MLA’s who were against this bill, also objected to the current state of infrastructure. The current infrastructure is not in alignment with the proposed changes, which will get in hordes of people in Goa!
In his reply during this withdrawal of this TCP Amendment Bill, the Valpoi MLA, Vishwajit Rane, who also heads the Health Department, Urban Development, Forest, Women & Child Development along with this Town & Country Planning Department, assured all the MLA’s present that he will look into all the allegations. He assured the house that there will be no more changes of zones of land parcels which fall under the category of No Development Slopes, Agriculture, Industrial or Orchard.
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