Vishwajit Rane, Town and Country Planning Minister made a serious allegation against the members of the State Level Committee SLC stating that they arbitrarily removed areas in the Goa Regional Plan 2021 for their own benefits and agenda. He said that a lot of things about the illegalities in the Regional Plan 2021 were brought to his attention after a detailed interaction he had with James Mathews, chief town planner and Vinod Kumar, town planner.
Ran said that he was surprised to see how some of the members arbitrarily changed the zone of certain properties into settlement zones for their own benefits and for their own professional practice after having gone through all the plans signed by the members of the SLC. “A file came to me on a village called Azossim where 3 lakh square meters of forest have been removed and it has been shown as a settlement by the same SLC. I have been told that if we evaluate this today, it is more than ‘500 crore scam’”, he said.
He also added that it has been delimited. While the other area has been removed from the private forest which the SLC did not have the authority to do so, only 6,000-9,000 square meters remain as the private first area. “This area was bought by some other builders,” he said.
He went on to say that he understood that some of the involved people stood to benefit from these illegalities. He claimed that the Regional Plan 2021 was a big scam and he wants the people of Goa to realize and know this. “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,” he said. He said that it is shocking that someone has committed such illegalities only to promote their professional practice.
Rane said that he would submit a report on the floor of the House after involving a top agency to work on it. Experts are allegedly working on the case. He brought to notice the possible scale of the scams that have been in effect in the Regional Plan 2021 if one file of 3 lakh square meters indicates a scam of 500 crores. Even when there is no provision to change private forest into a settlement, an area in Arpora having a farmhouse was converted into a settlement zone. This corresponds to the 12 orchards that were converted to settlements as per applications submitted by non-Goans. Even in this conversion, an SLC member is claimed to have been involved.
Rane said that a detailed analysis is under process and a report is being prepared which he plans to submit on the floor of the House. He also plans to make a comprehensive presentation for the members of the assembly regarding the Regional Plan 2021.
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane made serious allegations against the members of SLC stating that some of them have arbitrarily removed or converted land in the Regional Plan 2021 to cater to their own benefits and agendas. He said he will make a detailed analysis report and submit it in the House.
