Staff Reporter
Panaji
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane on Wednesday made a serious charge that members of state level committee (SLC) had arbitrarily removed areas in the Goa Regional Plan 2021 only to accommodate their own agenda and benefits.
Rane said that after a detailed interaction with chief town planner James Mathews and town planner Vinod Kumar, a lot of things have been brought to his attention regarding illegalities in the Regional Plan 2021.
“I went through all the plans that were signed by SLC members and was amazed to see how some of the members arbitrarily changed the zone of certain properties into settlement zone only for the sole benefit of their own professional practice,” the minister said.
He said, “A file came to me on a village called Azossim where 3 lakh sq. mt. of forest have been removed and it has been shown as settlement by the same SLC. I have been told that if we evaluate this today, it is more than `500 crore scam,” he said. The minister added that it has been demarcated also. “So the private forest area that remains is about 6,000-9,000 sq. mt., while the other area has been removed from private forest where the SLC did not have the authority to do so, and this area was bought by some other builder,” he said.
“It is given to my understanding that some of the involved people have got benefit out of it,” Rane said. He stated that he would like the people of Goa to know that this Regional Plan 2021 was a big scam.
“A non-Goan member of the SLC who did not possess any required qualification of a town planner has played such a fraud on Goa;
it is really shocking, the height of illegalities that have been done only to promote his self professional practice,” he claimed.
The TCP Minister further added that he would involve a top agency to work on this report to be submitted on the floor of the House.
“Experts are working simultaneously… Leave aside defending and saying government departments are taken into confidence, all I can say is I am in a state of shock,” he said.
Rane said that if just one file of 3 lakh sq. mt. indicates a scam of `500 crore, imagine the scale of the scams that have been pulled off in the Regional Plan 2021.
“I have also seen an area in Arpora where an area having a farmhouse was entirely converted into a settlement zone when there is no provision to convert private forest into a settlement; here too, a member of SLC is involved. This is more significant, as the remark on plans clearly mentions that this is a forest area and yet it has been conveniently ignored. Even a zigzag road is proposed to this property through a forest area which is entirely through undeveloped slope,” he stated.
Rane said that he has also been shown another area in Assonora where a resort has been put in the CADA area.
“I have learnt that a member of SLC is fully behind it and done so for his personal gain in grabbing the project. The SLC has played a fool with the people of Goa. A detailed analysis is being done and I am waiting to place the report on the floor of the House. I will also make a detailed presentation to all the members of the assembly on what the Regional Plan 2021 is,” he said.