Modifies Town and Country Planning Act for land conversions in Goa to skirt the legislation

PANAJI: The Goa cabinet controversially amended the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974 by substituting Section 39A for ease of land conversions in favor of Section 16B.

In the assembly session that is set to start on February 2, the state administration will now change the TCP Act to remove Section 16B, which has been challenged in the Bombay High Court.

With a few exceptions, the chief town planner may amend the Regional Plan or the Outline Development Plan under Section 39A to implement a zone change for any parcel of property.

“The change or modification carried out under will not alter the overall structure of the existing Regional Plan or the Outline Development Plan,” the legislation stated.

The TCP Act’s Section 17(2), which gives the chief town planner the authority to amend the Regional Plan 2021 without consulting the public and under the pretense of fixing faults, is supplemented by the new section.

The effective date of Section 16B was October 3, 2018. “Under it, various fundamental and significant changes were recommended and provisionally approved by the Town and Country Planning Board,” according to a senior officer.

After the high court heard a challenge to the clause, an interim order was made prohibiting the granting of final permits. Because the petition has been pending before the high court for over four years, the approvals have also been put on hold.

The cabinet note stated, “About the aforementioned adjustments, there is currently no operational provision to effectively modify or update the current Regional Plan or Outline Development Plan (ODP) to meet the state’s housing, commercial, and infrastructural requirements.

In Goa, there has always been a strong need for residential, commercial, and other infrastructure developments. The government has occasionally taken several actions to meet these needs. The officer mentioned the addition of Section 16(B) to the TCP Act as one such initiative. It is mentioned that several public infrastructure projects and ideas are in the works to be implemented within the state by various federal and state legislation.

Goa is growing quickly, thus the government has to be able to make changes to the plans right away rather than waiting for the creation of a new, comprehensive regional plan for the entire state or for ODPs, which is a very drawn-out, complex, and time-consuming process.

The policeman stated. The officer stated that because the state has enacted several policies about its growth, the current Act has to be amended to give the government the authority to revise Regional Plans/ODPs through a thorough procedure.