Goan business lobby wants Regional Plan modified

Goa's controversial Regional Plan 2011 has received a major setback with the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry picking faults with it.

Goa’s controversial Regional Plan 2011 has received a major setback with the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) picking faults with it. In a statement issued, the body said the Plan which came after more than six years of work had several negative elements. “It appeared that, in the final stages of preparation, many undesirable and unjustifiable elements have been introduced into it. This certainly needs to be reviewed and corrected,” GCCI said.

Pointing out to several faults, Mark Rodrigues, GCCI Member in the Goa Town and Country Planning Board said to The Indian Express that the Town and Country Planning Ministry headed by Minister Atnasio Monserrate stopped consulting various interest groups after December 2005. “A Open House was held in November 2005 to ascertain the views of NGOs, GCCI, environmentalists and others and subsequently they went completely silent on the Regional Plan,” Rodrigues added. According to him vested interests played a major role in drafting the final plan.

Incidentally, Monserrate’s ministry has refused to release details of the Plan to the public. However, the body felt that it would not be prudent to scrap the entire plan as it would not be in the interests of the state.

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Meanwhile, GCCI President Nitin Kunkolienkar noted that big builders from Mumbai and Delhi have taken to buying land from locals. “Big real estate companies began to buy land three to five years ago and large-scale purchase of land has now accelerated,” Kunkolienkar said.

Incidentally, the Goa government had roped in Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt Ltd, an independent and premier firm to prepare the Plan more than six years ago. The new Plan was a revision of Regional Plan 2001. Accordingly the CESC submitted the first draft of the Regional Plan 2011 on June 1, 2001 to the government. The draft plan was circulated for comments and suggestion by the Town and Country Planning Department. The chamber added that other organisations from Goa were also called to make suggestions. Based on these suggestions additional drafts of the plan were prepared and on September 2, 2003, the CESC submitted a final draft of Regional Plan 2011, the chamber said.

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