Goemkarponn desk
VERNA: Goa State Industries Association welcomed Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane’s decision to make TCP and PDA more transparent and efficient.
In a press release issued by Damodar Kochkar, President of (GSIA), he said we are facing this typical problem: if any Industry operating outside GIDC industrial estates has to expand or start a new project, they first have to do so to get their construction plans approved from TCP or PDA. And then has to apply to Panchayat or Municipality for a construction licence. This procedure has to be again repeated to obtain an Occupancy Certificate.
Now we have received a complaint from one of our Industry Member. This company already has a factory in their own Industrial plot outside the Industrial estate for many years.
Now they are planning to expand their facility by about 500m2, for which they received TCP & Health approval by 7th March and had applied for a construction Licence with Panchayat on 15th March.
The concerned area Panch asked for a bribe of Rs 6 lakhs. So the company Consultant went to his house to convince him to settle for less amount as he, as a consultant, was getting only Rs 2.4 lakhs for designing & execution of this project. For which he refused to budge, saying even if CM tells him, he won’t clear the file.
Subsequently, two panchayat meetings happened; they differed, saying inspection was needed in the first meeting. They did an inspection before the second meeting but didn’t put this case in the meeting.
“After receiving this complaint, We brought it to the notice of Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Panchayat Minister and all concerned with details. Some are suggesting not to pay; others have no comments to offer. Simply if one stays without paying, then the entire project gets delayed, which incurs huge losses to the company,” he said.
Kochkar further said he simply doesn’t understand how Industries are supposed to function with this kind of affair.
“On one side, we are talking about Zero tolerance. Single window clearance. But nobody is ready to take action or make any policy changes,” he said.
Now the only thing left is to approach Double engine at Delhi to see if they can drag us out of this situation, he added.
“As per my knowledge, Panchayat or Municipality is involved only because some license fees have to go to them and further house tax collection. This can be easily done by an online portal,” he added.
“If we really want some employment generation and economic development in Goa, we must remove all these unnecessary hurdles”, Kochkar added.