To escape law, state tweaks TCP Act for land conversions

PANAJI: In a contentious move, the Goa cabinet has replaced Section 16B of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 with Section 39A for ease of land conversions. State government will now amend the TCP Act to omit Section 16B, which has been challenged in the Bombay high court, in the assembly session scheduled to begin on Feb 2.

Under Section 39A, the chief town planner can alter or modify the Regional Plan or the Outline Development Plan for carrying out change of zone of any land, except in a few cases.

"The alteration or modification carried out under will not alter the overall character of the existing Regional Plan or the Outline Development Plan," said the bill.

The new section is in addition to Section 17(2) of the TCP Act that empowers the chief town planner to make changes to the Regional Plan 2021-under the guise of correcting errors-without any public consultation.

Section 16B came into effect from October 3, 2018. "Under it, various fundamental and significant changes were recommended and provisionally approved by the Town and Country Planning Board," a senior officer said.

The provision was challenged before the high court and an interim order was passed, whereby the final approvals could not be granted. The petition is pending in the high court for more than four years and consequently, the approvals have also been stayed.

I rrespective of the above amendments, there is no provision that is operational at this point of time to effectively modify or amend the existing Regional Plan or Outline Development Plan (ODP) to cater to the housing, commercial and infrastructure requirements of the state,” the cabinet note said.

There has always been a major requirement in Goa for housing, commercial and other infrastructure projects. Various initiatives were taken by government from time to time to cater to such requirements. One such initiative was the insertion of Section 16(B) to the TCP Act, the officer said. “It is noted that in pursuance to various central/state policies, there are several public infrastructure projects/proposals in the pipeline to be taken up within the state

. Thus, Goa is developing at a brisk pace and therefore there is an immediate need for government to have a power to amend the plans and not wait for the preparation of a new holistic Regional Plan for entire state or ODPs, which is very long drawn, elaborate and time-consuming process,” the officer said. There are various policies adopted by the state in relation to development of the state and therefore it is a need to incorporate an amendment to the existing Act to empower government to modify the Regional Plans/ODPs by following a comprehensive process, the officer said.