Goemkarponn desk
MARGAO: Goa Foundation said that the new `illegal amendments’ proposed by the chief town planner under the Goa Land Development and Building Construction (Amendment) Regulation 2023 are nothing but the back door entry created to builders and developers by the government to ‘sell’ Goa.
Goa Foundation also demanded that the government scrap the amendments immediately in the interest of Goa’s future generations.
GF Director Claude Alvares recalled how they had challenged the 16B amendment to the TCP Act, and now because all the 7,000 earlier applications were cancelled, the government has brought in these new amendments.
He explained that the amendments meant that a party could come and say that their land is shown in orchard instead of settlement areas, and the can government ‘correct’ it using Section 17 (2) of the TCP Act.
Alvares urged Goans to recognize the contrasting interests between the TCP Department and the well-being, survival, and environmental preservation of Goa.
He also said that the party can come and say that their land is shown in orchards instead of settlement areas, and the government can do the correction with the help of section 17 (2) of the TCP Act. h
“This is not development. The people of Goa should realize that the interest of the TCP department is in contrast to the interest of all Goans,” he opined.
“These amendments are being forced upon the people of Goa by overriding the parent laws, underestimating the needs of the fragile land and ignoring the people of Goa. The TCP department had proved its incapacity to stop the destruction of Goa in the past. We therefore demand the government to scrap these proposed amendments at the earliest,” the experts maintained.
