The Regional Plan
A Brief on the Regional Plan 2011
What is the Regional Plan?
A Regional Plan is an overall master plan for the entire region. The Regional Plan for the State of Goa is a plan that covers the entire State and lays down broad demarcations with respect to areas for agriculture, forestry, industry, urban and rural settlements and other activities. This is specifically set out in section 11 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974.
How is the Regional Plan formed?
The Regional Plan is to be prepared after detailed surveys are carried out by the âThe Office of the Chief Town Plannerâ (CTP), after which it is referred to the Town & Country Planning Board, (TCPB) Goa.
The CTP is required to publicly notify the same in the Official Gazette after receiving suggestions and considering modifications suggested by the TCPB. Comments and objections are then invited from the public in writing with a period of not less than two monthsâ notice.
These comments are then referred back to the TCPB for consideration and a revised Regional Plan is submitted along with requisite modifications by the CTP to the Govt. of Goa along with the comments received from the public.
The Govt. may then either approve the same or return the same to the CTP to modify or to prepare a revised plan. If a revised plan is recommended, the procedure regarding public notice etc. is required to be followed all over again.
When the Regional Plan is finally notified and approved by the Govt. of Goa in the Gazette, all development by Government or public or private institutions or any other persons are required to conform to the provisions of the Regional Plan.
The Regional Plan being a large scale exercise covering the entire State and only generally demarcating major usage areas, typically, is not taken up for revision often or lightly, and in fact there exist in other States, Acts which provide that such revisions shall not be undertaken earlier than 10 years from the approval of the previous Regional Plan.
A Brief History of the Regional Plans
THE 1st REGIONAL PLAN
⢠The First Regional Plan draft was introduced by the TCP Board in December 1981.
⢠It was notified under Section 13 of the Act for inviting public objections and suggestions in February 1982.
⢠The Draft Plan had been given extensive publicity. The officials of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department had attended special gram sabha meetings in all the Village Panchayats throughout Goa. Goa did not then have a Panchayati Raj Act.
⢠The Plan was influenced by the report of the task force on eco-development of Goa constituted by the Central Planning Commission under Dr M S Swaminathan in 1981-82. This Plan was an in-house exercise without engaging any external private consultant and there was no political interference in its preparation.
⢠The 1st Regional Plan:
o Was finally approved by the TCP Board in June 1985.
o The Government approved it in October 1985.
o The Plan was gazetted in December 1985.
o In November 1988, the Regional Plan for Goa â 2001 proposals were printed and made available to the public along with a large map depicting the stateâs surface utilization policy.
o The Plan had a perspective of 15 years.
⢠There is no record of any assessment of the implementation of this Regional Plan as should have been done.
THE 2nd REGIONAL PLAN
⢠In view of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India (Powers to Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies) the TCP Act, 1974 needed changes. This meant devolving the land use planning powers to local bodies.
⢠In 1997-98, the Government set in motion the process of preparing a new Regional Plan up to 2011 AD.
⢠A private firm, Consulting Engineering Services (CES) Ltd, New Delhi was contracted to prepare the new Regional Plan as well as the Master Plan for Tourism.
⢠In October 1998, the Chief Town Planner (CTP) organized a day-long technical convention âGoa Beyond 2000â to discuss the new Regional Plan for Goa and a draft act was circulated.
⢠Without any reference to the above Convention and the draft act, CES prepared the Basic Information Report (BIR) that was circulated to a few stakeholders by the CTP.
⢠This was followed by the Draft Sectoral Report (DSR) in May 2000.
⢠On 3 October 2005, the Govt. of Goa purported to introduce by way of an urgent ordinance (Ordinance No. 3 of 2005), wide-ranging amendments to the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974, which were contrary to every tenet of planning law. It vested individual and private land holders with the power to make individual applications for amendments in both Plan and non-Plan areas not only in Town Planning Schemes but entire Development Plans and the overall Regional Plan for the entire State of Goa. It also illegally appropriated the powers vested in the statutory town planning authorities under the Act to the State Government.
⢠The amendments also made the Govt. of Goa responsible for the entire planning function and decision-taking, effectively sidelining and excluding statutory and expert planners and planning authorities, constituted under the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 from having any say in the granting of such individual applications for amendment and alteration of all the plans/schemes, while providing an entirely derisory and illusory time period of 15 days for the public to carry out inspection and comment on the proposed amendments/alterations.
⢠There were widespread protests all over the State of Goa opposing the same, including protests by members of the ruling partyâs legislative members. The issue was publicized widely. Significantly, both the Law Minister and the Deputy Speaker stated that they had either not been consulted at all before the same was issued or that they opposed the same.
⢠The exercise of the special urgency powers under Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 to issue the notifications is a gross and blatant abuse of power. The section makes it quite clear that the provisions are only to be invoked in extreme urgencies. In fact the same has been held to be a very extraordinary power as it dispenses with the normal procedure for citizensâ objections laid down in the Act itself and takes away the right of citizens to object.
⢠This is clearly a mockery of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India.
⢠A Writ Petition was filed in Court challenging the Ordinance. The Advocate-General appearing on behalf of the Respondents assured that the said Ordinance would not be acted upon. The petition was withdrawn based on this assurance.
⢠A Revised Draft Regional Plan was published on 22nd November 2005. The public was granted a mere three weeks till 15 December 2005 to submit comments on the entire Plan for the State of Goa.
⢠On 8 June 2006, contrary to the Draft Regional Plan, it was discovered that by a series of notifications under the emergency provisions of Section17 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 vast areas of land within the State were notified for acquisition. The lands notified for acquisition were based on the Revised Draft Regional Plan, which still did not have the force of law. Also, the amount of land notified for acquisition was far in excess of the land proposed for that purpose in the Revised Draft Regional Plan.
⢠In August 2006 the Govt. issued the Final Regional Plan for the entire State.
Why was the Regional Plan 2011 opposed?
Land use change
The Final Regional Plan made massive and sweeping changes in the Revised Draft Regional Plan across the entire State to the order of 7, 25, 50,000 sq. m. of additional land for settlement / industry in a span of 5 months. In addition to the 29% change already made by means of the first Draft, this accounts for an additional increase of 21% in settlement area in the 5 months between the Draft and the Notification.
Public exclusion
None of the above changes in area have been notified to the public for objections and suggestions.
The Final Regional Plan was sanctioned in August 2006 with major modifications that were not published for the public to send in their objections and suggestions. Neither the Panchayats nor the local urban bodies like the Municipal Councils or the Municipal Corporations were consulted on this matter.
Mining areas
Mining areas have not been shown in the Regional Plan despite this being a major and thriving industry in Goa, and it is a clear obligation under Section 11 of the Town & Country Planning Act to do so. The Director of Mines had objected to the fact that the mining areas in the State have not been shown in detail and he has suggested that mining areas, mining leases and jetties be shown on the Plan.
Mangroves
The Regional Plan has also re-zoned mangroves and marsh lands in Zuari River as Settlements. Mangroves and marsh lands are classified as CRZ-I areas, i.e. ecologically sensitive areas. The Final Regional Plan has permitted development of ecologically sensitive CRZ areas. This violates the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Destruction of a Biodiversity Hotspot
The hills and mountains of Goa are part of the Western Ghats, which has been identified as one of the twelve biodiversity hotspots of the world. The worldâs biodiversity hotspots are areas that contain nearly half of all plant species and a third of all terrestrial vertebrate species within only 1.4% of the worldâs landmass, and are under threat from logging, mining, monoculture and other human developments. They represent the last of what the world has to offer in terms of connection to our evolutionary past, and within are locked secrets of medicine and nature we have not yet fully understood. Birdlife International, UK and The Bombay Natural History Society, India have classified Canacona, Tiswadi, Carambolim Lake and Sanguem as important bird areas in the country and have identified habitat loss, alteration of habitat and mining as threats to these areas. A string of wildlife reserves emerged as a result from this chain of continuous green cover; Molem and Bondla in Goa, Dandeli and Anshi National Park in Karnataka and the reserved forests of Amboli in Maharashtra to mention a few. It is a well-proven fact that large mammal movements are wide ranging as they search for food and they require uninterrupted forest cover and unpolluted sources to thrive. It bodes ill for the region and sets a bad precedent when responsible Government agencies arbitrarily allow huge settlement areas where there is little or no human footprint as it wantonly erodes green cover and opens scope for man-animal conflict.
Pending forest survey
In December 1996 the Supreme Court ordered the demarcation of non-forested areas from forest areas in the country by the undertaking of a detailed ground survey. Ten years down the line the Government of Goa has today admittedly only surveyed about 14% of the State, according to the Public Information Officer of the office of the Chief Conservator of Forests. The Final Regional Plan has marked large settlement areas on areas that are forestland. The Final Regional Plan thus has the effect of circumventing this process.
Abuse of the Land Acquisition Act
All actions of the planning authorities are required to be taken in the public interest. The notifications and modifications in the Final Regional Plan are a blatant and unbridled abuse of the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act and the Town and Country Planning Act to both initiate and hastily implement amendments and alterations to the Regional Plan for the entire State, and this is entirely contrary to honest and transparent governance, to the basic principles of planning law and the basic tenets which govern the formulation of town planning schemes, development plans, and Regional Plans. The Government has completely usurped zoning powers that would be specifically within the scope of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act and the planning of which is vested in the hands of the relevant Panchayats.
Violation of statutes
There was been no consultation whatsoever with the public on these huge modifications and notifications. No consideration whatsoever has been given to numerous central statutes such as the Coastal Zone Regulations, Environmental Protection Act, the Historical Monuments Act, the Forest Act and the Indian Heritage Act.
Goa a concrete jungle??
The Final Regional Plan includes new towns requiring 3500 hectares:
o Business cum recreational centre near Panaji on 1000 hectares,
o Water park on 500 hectares near Chapora,
o Techno-recreational centre on 500 hectares near Margao,
o A Leisure City on 500 hectares near Chauri, Canacona,
o Eco-tourism centre on 500 hectares Ponda, near Bondla sanctuary
o Health tourism centre on 500 hectares Near Selaulim and Anjuna dams.
o Entertainment complex near the peninsula, Quelossim
The final amendments to the Regional Plan that seek to increase â by an additional 21% â the previously amended 29% in Settlement zones, shifts the balance of state development to a lopsided one, only emphasizing real estate development, with complete disregard to social implications or the strain it will put on the existing infrastructure and natural resources of the state.
