Panaji, Dec 1 (IANS) The Goa church Thursday rejected a much touted futuristic land use plan formulated by the state government and accused Chief Minister Digambar Kamat of selling out to the real estate lobby.
Speaking at a press conference here, convenor of the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) Father Maverick Fernandes said the church in Goa, which represents 26 percent of the state’s population, had rejected the Regional Plan (RP) 2021 and had given Kamat a Dec 15 deadline to take corrective steps.
‘The citizens are outraged because the whole exercise has been distorted and as it stands today, it is a threat to ecology and the existence of the Goan people and further compounded with vague, irrational and contradictory planning policies,’ said Fernandes, whose CSJP is the social arm of the influential Roman Catholic Church in Goa.
Fernandes said the dissent of the Goa church to Kamat’s RP 2021 would percolate down to its flock spread all across Goa.
Kamat, as chief minister, heads the State Level Committee (SLC) which has drawn up the much touted land use policy, which Fernandes said has clandestinely opened the door for wholesale ravaging of Goa by the real estate lobby.
The RP 2021 was fully notified by the government last month and has faced stiff resistance from civil society over the last four years, during which it was being put in place.
