Tells Collectors to withdraw NoCs
PANAJI
Nearly a month after suspending the previously notified Outline Development Plans (ODPs) of three planning areas in both the districts, the Town and Country Planning Department has now written to Collectors and other authorities to treat as “withdrawn” all NoCs and other actionable documents issued based on these ODPs.
“NoCs, reports or recommendations issued on the basis of the suspended ODPs of Calangute-Candolim-2025, Arpora-Nagoa-Parra-2030 and Vasco-da-Gama planning areas be treated as withdrawn,” the TCP department has written in a communique to the two district collectors.
While no definite numbers are available, the move to withdraw the NoCs is expected to adversely impact scores of parties who may have already begun working on land development and building projects in the jurisdiction of these three planning areas, possibly giving rise to court battles.
The ODPs of these three planning areas were abruptly suspended days after Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane took charge and placed under review of a committee headed by Chief Town Planner Rajesh Naik.
The action, seemingly targeted at Opposition Leader Michael Lobo, was taken because the ODPs had large scale irregularities like eco-sensitive zones and no-development zones being marked as settlement and commercial zones, Rane had alleged.
The review committee has since completed its task and readied a 240-page report on the various irregularities in these three ODPs.
Rane had said, the irregularities involve the ODPs showing as development zones areas with slopes, marshy lands, khazan lands and such other areas which are “No Development Zones” under existing TCP and building and development laws.
Besides the CTP, the review committee comprised Senior Town Planners of both the districts, member-secretaries of the North Goa and South Goa PDAs, besides representatives of stakeholder professional bodies including CREDAI, Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Institution of Engineers (India), and Institute of Town Planners.
One-upmanship: Rane gets wholesale fish market sopo contract terminated
MARGAO: In what appears a game of one-upmanship and a clear signal that he alone and no one else in the government would call the shots vis-à-vis the affairs of the SGDPA coming under the TCP department, TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane got the SGDPA Member Secretary Vinod Kumar to terminate the sopo collection contract in the wholesale fish market within hours after the Minister took to the Twitter to warn of strict action against the SGPDA Member Secretary Vinod Kumar.
In the instant case, the SGPDA had engaged a private contractor from Fatorpa, Viraj J Desai, who incidentally happens to be the Quepem BJP Yuva Morcha chief, for supplying around 8-9 labourers for cleaning and assisting the SGPDA staff for levy collection and maintenance of the wholesale fish market. >> See pg 2
