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Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Villages pulled from planning areas are governed by RP: HC
Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa has held that govt was incorrect in assuming that planning areas, once removed, cease to be governed under the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Act. In a major setback to the TCP department's plans for allowing construction activities along the North Goa coastal belt, the high court last week held that the two ODPs of Calangute-Candolim and Arpora-Nagoa-Parra could not operate for these villages, and would not govern them. It directed the state to follow Regional Plan 2021 for the approval of plans and the grant of permissions in these villages. 'Since the villages now fall in non-planning areas and the North Goa planning and development authority (NGPDA) has no jurisdiction, but the town and country planning department has assumed jurisdiction, it is open for it to process the permissions for development not as per the outlined development plan, which already lapsed, but as per the Regional Plan 2021,' stated the division bench comprising justices Bharati Dangre and Nivedita Mehta. These villages, once withdrawn from planning areas, still continue to be governed by the Regional Plan as the planning area falls within the state of Goa and the TCP Act extends to the whole of Goa, the high court observed. The high court order on the ODPs came after a series of legal back and forths, with the matter even reaching the Supreme Court, as the TCP department desperately tried to defend its implementation. The high court stated that state govt was not justified in invoking executive powers in issuing an executive order (enabling continuance of impugned ODPs) on the premise that there was a vacuum in the absence of a statutory regime governing the withdrawn planning areas, and that to fill the gap, the executive must step in and make an 'order' governing areas which are withdrawn as planning areas. As long as the Goa TCP Act continues to govern land development in the state through the regional plan, and since the Regional Plan 2021 is already in operation, there was no justification for the state in using the executive order, the court observed. From issuing circulars to even an ordinance, state govt has been trying hard to keep alive the ODPs despite initially suspending them due to large-scale illegalities. But in between all the legal wrangles, the TCP department went ahead with zone changes on its own. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Doctor's Day 2025 , messages and quotes!
Time of India
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Status of projects in 5 villages under cloud
Calangute: The status of projects constructed based on approvals under the ODPs for Calangute, Candolim, Parra, Arpora and Nagoa by the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) and TCP department, could once again come under a cloud following Monday's HC order. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) which had filed one of the petitions against the ODPs, said, 'We have not yet received the order and have yet to see what directions have been given by the HC. But the HC has said that there can be no construction based on approvals given under the ODPs by the NGPDA and the TCP department,' said CCF president Premanand Divkar. Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said he was yet to see the HC order. The panchayat had approached the HC in 2016 against the inclusion of Calangute in the NGPDA, but it was withdrawn after a new panchayat body supported by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo was elected in 2017. Lobo was also the chairman of the NGPDA at the time. A fresh petition had been filed after a new panchayat body was elected in 2022. The Goa Foundation had also filed petitions. The imbroglio over the ODPs has gone on for more than a decade. Activists and villagers had opposed the ODPs because of large-scale conversions of hill slopes and other eco-sensitive areas which had been marked as settlement zones. When the ODP was kept open for objections and suggestions, most of the objections had been ignored, villagers said.
