Panaji: Revolutionary Goans Party president, Manoj Parab, on Sunday, called for the immediate scrapping of the regional plan, and a halt to all land conversions in Goa, alleging that, over the past two and a half years, more than 25 lakh square metres of land has been converted.
“The rapid land conversions taking place across Goan villages is systematically destroying rural areas,” Parab said, adding that the conversion was being facilitated by those in power and officials through manipulation of legal provisions.
“Approvals for nearly one crore square metres of land are said to be still pending,” he said.
Parab said major land, under sections 39A and 16B, was converted into settlement zones under the current and previous governments.
This process began as early as 2011 when the Congress government allocated large land areas, which were then misused and settled under different pretexts, he said.
“In 2012, the BJP government allegedly granted an amnesty that allowed illegal land conversions to go unchecked for years,” said Parab, adding that “former town and country planning minister Vijai Sardesai re-notified the regional plan to favour these conversions”.
Parab alleged the recent cancellation of the zoning plan was done only to enable more aggressive land conversions in villages like Morjim, Korgaon, and Arambol.
“Now, their target is Korgaon, where alone, over 74,000 square metres of land has been converted,” he said.
