Over 1 crore sq mts of orchard land illegally converted: Vijai

NT NETWORK

 

PANAJI

Disclosing that more than one crore sq mts of orchard land around Goa has been illegally subdivided and sold as residential plots, Minister for Town and Country Planning Vijai Sardesai on Monday said that by way of an amendment to the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, such conversions have been made a cognizable offence, and since the particular amendment came into force on March 22, 2018, altogether 99 similar violations have been identified, while first information reports filed against many of them.

“The violators will now have to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh and face a year-long prison term,” Sardesai added, offering to set up an enforcement wing in co-ordination with the revenue department for tackling such violations, and further extend to the village panchayats, Section 52 and Section 53 of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, which allow the planning and development authorities to come down on unauthorised structures, in non-planning areas from the villages.

“Now development of any kind in contravention of the Regional Plan is a cognisable offence, and the violators would not be allowed to go scot free,” he pointed out, observing that the Regional Plan 2021 has been notified as well as operationalised, and we would have to live with it.

Replying to the two questions related to the department of town and country planning, as raised by Congress MLA Dayanand Sopte and Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Nilesh Cabral during the question hour in the state legislative assembly, Sardesai admitted that in all, 1,233 projects were approved by the department from November 2011 to March 2012, when the election code of conduct was enforced in Goa, due to the 2012 assembly selection.

Responding to the allegations made by Sopte against the TCP department for deceptively issuing TCP clearance certificates to 11 projects around

the state, the minister said that he will check the files related to these projects and if there is any case worthy of taking action, then the same would be done.

Sardesai said that although the TCP department issues technical licences to the projects, it is the local self-government bodies like village panchayat, which issue construction licences.

“Nevertheless, the department will not allow deviation in any project, and would issue completion certificates to only those projects, which have carried the works as specified earlier,” he added.

Sopte pointed out that one Mahaseer Hotels Project Pvt Ltd coming up at Ashevem in Mandrem had been permitted to construct a hotel. However, now residential villas are being constructed under this permission.

Margao MLA Digambar Kamat brought to the notice of the House that the TCP department can revoke clearance certificate issued to any project by the local self-government body, and also the district collector can step in, in case of failure of any kind on the part of the local self-government body.