Thousands protest against planning, development bodies in Goa

Thousands of civil society members protested on Friday against the creation of planning and development authorities (PDAs) by the BJP-led coalition government in Goa and demanded these be scrapped immediately.

The protesters alleged at a public meeting at the Azad Maidan square here that these bodies will facilitate land scams, involving change of land use from non-development to commercial.

"This is the biggest scam. The PDAs are nothing but vehicles for land conversion for a price," Goa Bachao Abhiyan Convenor Sabina Martins said at the meeting.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government has been on the backfoot over the issue of formation of PDAs covering Panaji and other villages of Parra and Candolim as well as other areas, which has been opposed by area residents.

The PDAs are the brainchild of Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai and endorsed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar just before he was shifted to the US for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

Sardesai has already withdrawn two villages from the Greater Panaji PDA following another set of protests last week.

"The PDAs are meant for public good and planned development. But if the people do not want, we will withdraw them," Sardesai said.

Civil society activists have been protesting for several years about rampant concretisation of Goa and claimed that use of PDAs to expeditiously change or convert land use from 'non-development' or 'orchard land' into 'commercial areas' would only hasten over-development and put more stress on already scarce land resource in Goa, which is geographically India's smallest state.

--IANS

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