Status of projects in 5 villages under cloud

Calangute: The status of projects constructed based on approvals under the ODPs for Calangute, Candolim, Parra, Arpora and Nagoa by the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) and TCP department, could once again come under a cloud following Monday’s HC order.

The Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) which had filed one of the petitions against the ODPs, said, “We have not yet received the order and have yet to see what directions have been given by the HC. But the HC has said that there can be no construction based on approvals given under the ODPs by the NGPDA and the TCP department,” said CCF president Premanand Divkar.

Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said he was yet to see the HC order. The panchayat had approached the HC in 2016 against the inclusion of Calangute in the NGPDA, but it was withdrawn after a new panchayat body supported by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo was elected in 2017. Lobo was also the chairman of the NGPDA at the time.

A fresh petition had been filed after a new panchayat body was elected in 2022.

The Goa Foundation had also filed petitions.

The imbroglio over the ODPs has gone on for more than a decade. Activists and villagers had opposed the ODPs because of large-scale conversions of hill slopes and other eco-sensitive areas which had been marked as settlement zones. When the ODP was kept open for objections and suggestions, most of the objections had been ignored, villagers said.