2 Goa Ministers, local BJP, Congress leaders — look who benefits from tweak in state land use law that threatens ‘green zones’

The absence of public scrutiny and who decides what is “inadvertent error” form the nub of the controversy.

Such changes were allowed after a March 2023 amendment [section 17 (2)] to the Goa Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act 1974, which allows conversion of plots without public consultation if the owner approaches the department with a request to “correct inadvertent errors” or “rectify inconsistent/incoherent zoning” in Goa’s Regional Plan 2021.

The absence of public scrutiny and who decides what is “inadvertent error” form the nub of the controversy.

Who got approval

An investigation of records shows the following public figures and corporates among the beneficiaries:

* The Forest, Town and Country Planning Minister and spouse: Karapur Estates Private Ltd, which lists TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane and his wife Deviya Rane as directors, got clearance to convert 11,580 sq m of land in Bicholim taluka’s village Sarvona. Records show approval was received for “correction” of the zone to “settlement”, which was earlier earmarked as “partly paddy field with CADA” in the 2021 regional plan.

The company, engaged in agriculture, forestry, fishing and production of crops, also got approval for “correction” of 515 sq m from cultivable land to settlement for another plot in Karapur.

Both applications for correction were received on December 15, 2023. They were corrected and subsequently notified in the Official Gazette on February 15, 2024.

Asked about this, Vishwajit Rane told The Indian Express: “It was related to the access road to the property. The main property was converted 25 years ago. But I will have to verify it. The bottom line is that everything has been strictly done as per the guidelines and under the ambit of law.”

Asked about concerns that the land use changes could lead to unbalanced development and would facilitate entry of real estate lobbies from outside the state, he said, “Whatever has been done is within the framework of the laws and as per the guidelines. As a minister, it is my job to see that all the rules and regulations are followed. There have been no violations. Before me (my tenure as TCP Minister), under section 16 B amendment, over 7,500 applications for land zone changes were received and over 1,000 were approved. Under the previous regional plan, over 1.5 crore sq m land was sought to be converted in one taluka. Some applications are sub-judice… people have invested in Goa. We cannot stop people from coming here. Goa is a progressive state. The whole idea is to put planning in perspective and we have on-boarded experts and consultants. For big projects, the green certification nod, as per the norms of Indian Green Building Council, will be required. Not a single inch of private forest has been touched.”

Vishwajit Rane, son of veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane, quit the Congress and joined the BJP in 2017. He is the BJP MLA from Valpoi and currently holds the portfolios of Forest, TCP, Public Health, Urban Development, and Women and Child Development. It was under his tenure as TCP Minister that the TCP Act was amended. His wife Deviya Rane is the BJP MLA from Poriem.

* Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira: On August 29, 2023, an application by Sequeira seeking approval for rezoning of 3,817 sq m of a property to a settlement in Salcete’s Nuvem – he is the Nuvem MLA – received approval. This property was marked in the Regional Plan 2021 as an orchard with no development slope. It was corrected and notified in the Official Gazette on January 11, 2024. Another application received by the TCP department on May 29, 2023, from real estate firm Tonia Estates and Resorts Pvt Ltd, which lists Sequeira as a managing director, received approval on October 19, 2023, for correction of 1,575 sq m of orchard land to settlement in Colva.

Asked about these approvals, Sequeira, who also holds the portfolio of Legislative Affairs and Captain of Ports, said: “In the original regional plan, these were under settlements, these were all settlement zones. And in the last regional plan (2021)… there it was incorrectly zoned as an orchard. It was a mistake, so we got it corrected.” Sequeira was among the eight MLAs who switched to the BJP from the Congress in September 2022.

* Union Minister Shripad Naik: On July 25, 2023, an application by Naik, six-time BJP MP from North Goa and Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, was received for rezoning of 14,225 sq m of orchard and natural cover to settlement in Panelim village in Tiswadi taluka. The application was corrected and notified in the Official Gazette on February 15, 2024. Despite several attempts, Naik was not available for comment. Said his son Siddesh Naik: “I am not fully aware of this land correction. I will have to talk to my father, then I will be able to say anything on this.”

* Former Navelim MLA, Congress’s Avertano Furtado: On September 7, 2023, Furtado got approval for “rectification” of 8,650 sq m from paddy field with irrigation command area to settlement in Navelim. The application was put up on May 22, 2023. After winning as an independent candidate from Navelim in 2012, he had supported the BJP government and held several portfolios in the Manohar Parrikar-led cabinet from 2012 to 2017. He joined the Congress in 2021.

“If you don’t cultivate (paddy fields), it’s barren land. I have put a petrol pump there. Whatever the government does (in purview of law), it stands,” he said. Furtado said he was still associated with the Congress, but not in an active role.

* BJP MLA from Pernem, Pravin Arlekar: On February 8, 2024, two applications in his name were approved in Guirim in Bardez taluka regarding “correction” of 8,775 sq m and 2,625 sq m of paddy field with irrigation command area to settlement. Both applications were filed on December 14, 2023. When contacted, Arlekar did not comment on his application but applauded the amendment to the TCP Act. “This is a good step by the government. There are a lot of people in the region who want to repair their old houses or build new ones and convert them into settlements. This amendment will help them. I spoke about this in the Assembly.”

* Expert committee member Ralph de Sousa: On June 15, 2023, an application from a real estate firm M/s De Souza Estate Holdings Private Ltd was approved for correction of 2,750 sq m of natural cover into “settlement” in Sangolda village in Bardez taluka. The firm’s director is Ralph de Sousa, a member of the expert committee that scrutinises and verifies proposals for change in land use under Section 17(2). The application was filed on May 3, 2023.

When contacted, De Sousa, former president of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “The regional plan 2001 showed the plot as a settlement area with a small portion as an orchard… In the draft plan (2021), our plot was shown as a settlement and a small portion as an orchard. We decided to develop the plot and were surprised that it was incorrectly published as natural cover in the notified master plan. We filed an objection with the department in November 2011 and were pursuing this matter for 12 years. A sub-committee to examine such cases under section 17(2) was formed on May 25, 2023. As this was an appropriate body, we presented our matter to the committee. The matter was examined and found fit to be recommended for rectification and the rectification was published on June 15, 2023… We have not done any conversion. I am not an investor. This is our old property.”

On whether his being on the expert committee that scrutinises applications was a potential conflict of interest, he said he had recused himself from the meeting due to protocol. “I was not in the meeting that day (when the application was brought for scrutiny). This application was put up much before this committee was formed,” he said.

* Chairman, Dempo Group: On September 26, 2023, two applications were received from industrialist Shrinivas Dempo, chairman of the Dempo Group of Companies, and Vasudeva Dempo Family Private Trust respectively, for “correction” of 925 sq m of natural cover with no development slope to settlement in Socorro, and 4,935 sq m of orchard to settlement in Ella. The applications were corrected and notified on February 28, 2024. Shrinivas’s wife Pallavi Dempo contested the recent South Goa Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket. Despite several messages, Shrinivas Dempo was not available for comment.

* Telugu film star, Telangana businessman: Among the first applications filed and later approved under the amendment, for a change of zoning from orchard to settlement for 7,823 sq m of land for two survey numbers in Morjim, was by Telugu star and RRR actor Konidela Ram Charan. The applications were filed on March 27, 2023, shortly after the Act was amended. The same day, Preetham Reddy Nalla, a prominent businessman from Telangana, sought a “correction” of 57,562 sq m of orchard land to settlement in adjoining areas in Morjim in four survey numbers. All these applications were corrected and notified on April 20, 2023.

* Sanatan Sanstha and its affiliate Hindu Janajagruti Samiti: On October 27, 2023, Sanatan Sanstha’s application concerning changing the zone of 9,691 sq m, which was previously earmarked partly settlement and partly orchard with no development slope, was approved to “institutional”. On September 7, 2023, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti’s application for “correction” of 6,751 sq m settlement land was approved to institutional.

When contacted, Ramesh Shinde, national spokesperson, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, said: “An institution for instilling teachings and values of the Hindu faith is supposed to be set up there. This application was filed by our trust in 2019. Since the rule was changed by the government, we reapplied… Changing zone from settlement to institutional, like the case here, has no benefit since only an institution can use this land henceforth.”

Said Chetan Rajhans, national spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha: “There is a spiritual research centre here. In 2019, we put up an application to classify the land as ‘institutional’ from the viewpoint that people are able to access educational benefits or for research and training purposes in the future. However, in 2023, the law was changed so we were told to re-apply. In 2024, we applied and our application was assessed and changed to institutional.”

The list also includes at least 65 people or firms associated with real estate, housing, construction, hospitality and hotels, including many from outside Goa. In fact, over 60 per cent of the land where permission was granted belongs to 20 individuals and companies.

Data shows that since the amendment in March 2023, the TCP department received 1,075 applications for “correction” of zoning out of which 260 have been approved. Of these, at least a third of the area “corrected” is in the coastal villages in Pernem taluka. Other major corrections took place in Bardez, Tiswadi and Salcete talukas.

Legal dispute

In June last year, The Goa Foundation, The Khazan Society of Goa (NGO) and Goa Bachao Abhiyan (NGO), filed a PIL in the High Court of Bombay at Goa for an order to quash and set aside Section 17 (2) of the TCP Act, challenging the constitutional validity of the provision.

The petitioners submitted that the amendment vested “arbitrary, uncanalised and untrammeled powers” in the government to effect changes in the zoning of plots within the statutory Regional Plan 2021, on the basis of individual requests from private parties claiming to be victims of errors in the planning.

The petition listed the state of Goa (through chief secretary Goa, who is also the secretary in charge of Town and Country Planning), TCP department (chief town planner, planning), and several private parties for the first few applications that were approved under the amendment as respondents. The final hearing in the petition started last week.

Puneet Kumar Goel, the Goa Chief Secretary, did not respond to calls and messages seeking a comment.

THE CHRONOLOGY

* Goa’s first regional plan, which lays down a decadal road map for land use and development and demarcates zones for agriculture, forests, hills, orchards, industry, settlements, was notified in 1986 and had a horizon period till 2001.

* After 1988, section 17 of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act empowered the government to direct the TCP department to undertake ad-hoc revisions of the regional plan. This meant that people could apply for a zone change and get the land converted from natural cover to settlement and start construction on their property.

* From 1988 to 2005, over 2,241 zone changes took place and a majority of changes involved conversion of agricultural land and natural cover. Such piecemeal revisions led to concerns of “chaotic development”, with the then Secretary, Town and Country Planning, Jayshree Raghuram, observing in an office note in March 2005 that “conscious effort needs to be made to curb this practice of allowing ad-hoc changes”, which has led to “haphazard development” and “mushrooming of concrete structures with scant regard to planning and land use norms”.

* “The crux of the problem in this department has been frequent change of land use in individual cases ranging from small plots to thousands of square metres of land, on the advice of the Town and Country Planning Board and with the approval of the government,” the note said.

* The then Chief Secretary Kiran Dhingra also noted that “relaxations under section 17 of the TCP Act are not well founded in law as they make changes in the regional plan without following provisions of the Act for amendment to the regional plan”.

*Following this, the practice of ad-hoc changes on requests from private individuals came to an end during the President’s Rule in Goa in 2005, when the state government passed an order to stop entertaining any applications for change in land use.

* In 2011, a revised regional plan 2011 was published, which came under criticism due to the proposed land use changes which sought to bring vast areas under settlements. A mass public agitation led to scrapping of the regional plan 2011. Subsequently, the government appointed a task force headed by renowned architect Charles Correa to draft the regional plan 2021. This draft was later notified in segments and has been in force.

* In 2018, the Goa assembly passed another amendment to the TCP Act – section 16 B – which allowed people to request the chief town planner for change of zone in the regional plan on a case-by-case basis.

* In 2022, the government announced that all recommendations under section 16 B would be scrapped and earlier this year, the cabinet decided to repeal the provision.

* In March 2023, the government amended the Goa Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act 1974. The amendment allows conversion of privately owned plots if the owner approaches the department with “inadvertent errors” that need to be “corrected” in Goa’s Regional Plan 2021, without public consultation.