Thaindian News

Panaji, Dec 15 (IANS) The Goa church has hit out at the state government over its formulation of a much hyped Regional Plan 2021, a brainchild of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, and alleged it was tilted in favour of real estate developers.

In a statement issued here, Council of Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) executive secretary Fr Maverick Fernandes rejected the plan, which he said was loaded with “flagrant inaccuracies” tilted in favour of real estate developers. Fernandes asked the Congress-led coalition government in Goa to rectify the plan without ado.

“In the light of the irresponsible distortions in the Notified Goa Regional Plan 2021, the government is ethically-legally obligated to acquiesce the people’s demands,” Fernandes demanded, adding that the Goa government should now “stop granting any permissions, with the exception of single dwelling units in settlement areas”.

The accusation of the Church comes just as Kamat has started a fire-fighting mission vis a vis the RP 2021, ahead of the scheduled Goa visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Dec 17.

The Regional Plan 2021 was the brainchild of Digambar Kamat, who had in 2007 first advocated a “bottom to top” developmental model involving panchayats and village-level groups for their inputs, which he promised would be included in the document.

However, for four years now, the Church and a majority of the civic groups in Goa have accused Kamat of fraudulently including projects and surreptitiously facilitating huge tracts of land to the real estate lobby, and ignoring suggestions of the village level groups and recommendations from gram panchayats.

“The RP-2021 appears to reflect the conflict of interest of some of the members of the erstwhile Task Force as also of the state level committee,” Fernandes said.

“It is evident that those involved in the final preparation of the Notified RP-2021 have ignored the aspirations and genuine recommendations of the Gram Sabhas and Nagar Palikas, who sacrificed immense time and resources in preparing their correct maps and plans,” he added.

CSJP is the social arm of the Roman Catholic church in Goa, which represents nearly 26 percent of the state’s population.

Kamat, as chief minister, heads the state level committee which has drawn up the much-hyped futuristic land use policy, which the Church has said is aimed at pleasing the real estate lobby.

Kamat, who has studiously shunned the media over the last two months, met editors over a lunch at a five-star restaurant in Panaji Wednesday in a bid to stem the bad press his government has received over the last few months over the RP 2021 issue.