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News Articles
RP 2011 axed retrospectively
BY HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, FEB 7 â The much awaited notification scrapping the Regional Plan 2011 was finally issued today evening with the Chief Town Planner of the Town and Country Planning department, under government directions, withdrawing the revised RP 2011 with retrospective effect.
Todayâs notification is in pursuance of sub-section 17 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act 1974 and following orders of the government under sub section (1) of section 17 of the TCP Act.
The chief town planner has accordingly withdrawn in its entirety the operations of the revised Regional Plan 2011, which was notified by the government on August 9, 2006 and published in the extraordinary gazette on August 10, 2006, with retrospective effect.
The notification issued today comes two days after Governor S C Jamir promulgated an Ordinance empowering the government to amend the TCP Act for withdrawing the RP 2011.
But it was a group of architects, engineers, conservationists and environmentalists who first came out publicly against the RP 2011 in October after which a writ petitions were filed by Goa Action Heritage Group, Adv A Misquita and Goa Foundation. Herald, taking up the cause in October, had called it âA Plan to Destroy Goaâ while highlighting the points why it had to be scrapped.
The controversial RP 2011 has been withdrawn a little more than two months after Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) was formed in the first week of December 2006. Though many people in general and the rulers in particular were quite confident that nothing much would change, it was the peopleâs anger supported by the Church that compelled the government to denotify the Plan.
Incidentally, it was only when the people began to protest vociferously that politicians â both from the Opposition and coalition partners â came out against the Plan.
The history of the Plan goes back to the BJP regime when the process was started in 2001. The ground work was done by a Delhi-based agency based on whose draft, objections/suggestions were invited. The draft Plan was re-opened in December 2005 by Congress-led government and the Plan was approved without consulting the people at grass-root level, in April 2006 by Town & Country Planning Board.
GBA convenor Dr Oscar Rebello declined to comment saying both the ordinance and todayâs notification would be studied by their legal experts.
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