2.7L sqm notified for change of use under TCP's Sec 39A: Rane
Town and country planning (TCP) minister Vishwajit Rane on Thursday said in the House that 2.7 lakh sqm of land was notified under Section 39A of the TCP Act for change of land use.
Responding to a question by St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar, Rane said not a single guideline was violated under Section 39A and that the court itself had observed that the section was an excellent mechanism.
Borkar pointed out that the use of vast tracts of land had been changed under Section 39A and that rampant hill-cutting has been taking place. 'There have been changes on no-development slopes, in natural cover and in orchard land,' he said.
Citing an instance, he said that change of use had been recommended for 5,000sqm of land at Siridao and that this area included a religious structure and comprised partly natural cover with a no-development zone.
In yet another case, he said, 6,000sqm of orchard land had been recommended for a change in use, and that in one more instance, more than 74,000sqm was sought to be converted despite it being partly natural cover, partly micro-industrial zone, and partly orchard land. 'This land has not been notified but recommended for a change in land use,' Borkar said.
The MLA asked if the land of a Delhi-based person which was cleared for change of use, would be reverted to its original use by the minister. Rane said he had noted the objections and that the matter would no longer be processed.
Stay updated with the latest local news from your
city
on
Times of India
(TOI). Check upcoming
bank holidays
,
public holidays
, and current
gold rates
and s
ilver prices
in your area.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
10 minutes ago
- Mint
How Trump and Putin reached a new make-or-break moment on Ukraine
WASHINGTON—President Trump has long believed the crux of foreign policy is two leaders in a room making historic deals. Pulling off a cease-fire in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be the kind of diplomatic coup he has long craved. It remains a long shot. The leaders could meet as soon as next week to pursue a peace agreement following months of maneuvering. But their approaches remain at odds. Trump has urged Putin to stop the war but has shown little interest in the specifics of a deal. The Kremlin boss has rebuffed all appeals to halt the fighting, except on his terms. After months of failed efforts to forge a deal, first by coercing Kyiv and later by wooing Putin, Trump has come around to the belief that heightened economic pressure on Moscow might be the only way to get an agreement. To sway Putin, Trump has embarked on a more confrontational course, threatening sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy. He targeted India, a major buyer of Russian oil, with 50% tariffs on its goods shipped to the U.S. Other nations that import Russian oil and gas, including China, could see their duties raised by Trump's Friday deadline for an agreement. But even Trump seemed less than optimistic Thursday following talks earlier in the week between his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Putin in Moscow. 'We're going to see what he has to say," Trump told reporters of Putin. 'That's going to be up to him." The White House is working on arranging a meeting with Putin but would like a three-way meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 'President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end," she said. The Russian leader said he is only open 'in principle" to talks with Zelensky. 'We are still far from creating such conditions," said Putin, who has frequently called into question Zelensky's legitimacy. Putin wouldn't have to agree to meet Zelensky for Trump to see him, the White House said. If the Trump-Putin summit happens, it could prove the biggest test of Trump's dealmaking skills this term. Trump returned to the White House vowing he could stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, later claiming he was merely joking. Privately, Trump is fuming at his failure to halt the war 200 days into his second presidency, according to aides. He has slowly come to recognize that a settlement must take account of Zelensky's bottom line and that of key European governments, who insist they won't recognize Russian control over any conquered territory—a key Kremlin demand—as part of an agreement. There is the added concern that Putin may not be serious about reaching a deal. 'Putin has made it clear that the Ukraine war is more important to him than the relationship with the U.S.," said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. Another challenge for Trump will be navigating talks with a Russian leader who has a quarter-century of experience dealing with various U.S. presidents and has proved himself skilled in influencing them. If Trump meets with Putin and emerges empty-handed, he will have to decide whether to increase pressure on Russia, despite his skepticism that economic or military moves would alter the Kremlin's calculus, or follow through on a threat he had made repeatedly to abandon the peace process. Either way, Polyakova said, 'the war keeps dragging on." Russian President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, President Trump's envoy, in Moscow this week. Trump entered his second term confident his rapport with Putin would overcome the complexities of the war Russia launched in February 2022. The president's supporters say he has been wrongly caricatured as too cozy and deferential to the Russian leader. 'People have misunderstood Trump's approach," said Fred Fleitz, who was a senior National Security Council official during the first term. 'It isn't that Trump likes dictators. He believes America has to coexist with Russia. Since we're not going to war, how do we deal with them?" Trump and Putin have held multiple calls and passed numerous messages through intermediaries, U.S. officials and other people familiar with their communications said. Their conversations, according to a senior administration official, have been typically friendly. Trump often discusses his aim of a revived U.S.-Russian relationship propelled by growing economic cooperation. Putin lists his grievances and core desires, mainly international recognition of Russia's control over Crimea and the Donbas region, much of which it has seized from Ukraine. Their calls extend for hours sometimes due to lengthy Putin monologues and the need for translations, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump, usually impatient and anxious to chime in, listens attentively, aides said. 'Putin does this very methodically," John Bolton, Trump's third national security adviser during the first term, said of the former KGB officer. 'He's very knowledgeable, he knows what he's talking about. When he wants to try and influence somebody, he just talks and talks and talks." Putin has carefully studied the new Trump administration and understands where Russia's leverage with the president lies, said Fiona Hill, who was a top Russia aide in the White House during Trump's first term. 'Putin's done his homework. He's had years of figuring out who Trump is," she said. Part of that homework was determining how to prosecute his war while sending signals of openness to diplomacy. Russia still attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with long-range missiles and drones, killing civilians with regularity. The conflict along the roughly 750-mile front line remains a grinding war of attrition, with Russia's summer offensive clawing gradual gains against a staunch and stretched Ukrainian defense. Moscow's lead in air power and troop numbers have given it the upper hand in the fight, U.S. and European officials quietly admit, though Russia's glaring weakness remains its heavily sanctioned economy. Trump's frustrations with Putin started to seep into the open at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in June, when he called his Russian counterpart's refusal to end the war 'misguided." 'I'm very surprised. Actually, I thought we would have had that settled easy," Trump told reporters. A July 3 phone call lasted barely an hour—far shorter than their previous chats. The call lacked the warmth with which they normally spoke to each other, the senior administration official said. There wasn't a flashpoint, but Trump ended it feeling perplexed, adding to his gnawing sense of being dragged along. Trump later acknowledged that Putin would say one thing in their conversations about his interest in halting the war and yet do another thing. 'I go home, I tell the first lady, 'And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' She said, 'Oh, really? Another city was just hit.'" A frustrated Trump announced last month that he would give Putin 50 days to complete a cease-fire with Ukraine, later shortening the deadline to Friday. Failure to do so would lead the U.S. to sanction some of Russia's top energy customers, a strategy aimed at choking off Moscow's major remaining sources of revenue for its war effort. Administration officials and close presidential confidants said Trump and Putin didn't have a single, major blowup this year. Instead it was a 'series of moments," in the words of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), that ultimately convinced Trump that 'Putin was trying to play him." 'You see now a turning of the page, and Putin has nobody to blame but himself," Graham said. But there are concerns in the U.S. and Europe that Putin floated the idea of a meeting to continue stringing Trump along, not to settle for peace. Putin might propose that Russia officially control some of the Ukrainian territory it occupies in exchange for a withdrawal of his forces from other parts of Ukraine, said a senior European diplomat and a Ukrainian official. Trump, eager for a deal, might urge Ukraine and allies to accept the offer. Kyiv and other European governments would likely reject the plan, the official said, playing into Putin's hands because Trump, rarely concerned with the details of a peace settlement, might then blame Ukraine for continuing to fight. Trump could cut off intelligence and military support for Ukraine, as he did earlier this year, setting back Zelensky's efforts to align himself more closely with Trump following a combative Oval Office meeting in February. The U.S. could also remove itself from the diplomatic process entirely, leaving Moscow and Kyiv to continue what Trump has long labeled 'Biden's war." But those who know Trump suspect he will keep pursuing the most prized deal of his early presidency, where success or failure could define his legacy. 'He wants to be the guy who gets deals," said Marc Short, a first-term senior White House aide. 'That is his brand." Write to Alexander Ward at Alex Leary at and Matthew Luxmoore at
Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Goa minister says 17 lakh square metres underwent land use correction, Opp slams ‘destruction of agri land'
Goa's Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vishwajit Rane on Thursday said the TCP department granted approval to 'correct' land use of over 17 lakh square metres of land under section 17(2) of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974. Section 17 (2) was introduced through an amendment to the TCP Act and notified in March 2023. The controversial section allows the correction of privately owned plots in Goa's Regional Plan 2021, based on individual applications from such parties to 'correct inadvertent errors' or 'rectify inconsistent or incoherent zoning'. The section was read down by the High Court of Bombay at Goa in March. The state government has subsequently challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court. During Question Hour in the Assembly, Rane said that no cultivable land has been converted under the provisions of the TCP Act. Rane said the TCP department received 950 applications for land use zone changes under section 39A of TCP Act. Section 39A, notified in 2024, empowers the chief town planner to alter the regional plan and/or the outline development plan to carry out zone change of land after 30 days' public notice. 'Out of those, 200 applications were considered and 35 notified and a total of 2.7 lakh square metres land use was corrected under section 39A of TCP Act,' Rane said. Congress's Yuri Alemao, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said, 'A deeply troubling picture of systematic destruction of Goa's agricultural land, all pushed through in the name of 'zone correction' under section 17(2) of the TCP Act, is seen. I want to ask the government whether it will bring a new regional plan.' Alemao said the provision was brought for Goans who owned little land and whose land was wrongly zoned. 'The data, however, shows that land (being corrected) is neither small, nor is it for Goans. Why is the department allowing large scale conversion of paddy fields and orchard land? People are worried about their lands being alienated. The 'Sharmas and Vermas' are buying second homes here. There are concerns about the carrying capacity of villages,' Alemao said. Rane, however, said, 'We are not converting any land under section 17(2). It is correction.' The Indian Express had reported in September 2024 that two state ministers, politicians from across party lines, and several real estate companies in Goa are alleged beneficiaries of the change in land use under section 17(2) of the TCP Act. According to the Express investigation, the TCP department approved a change in land use for at least 20 lakh square metres of land from March 2023 to August 2024, converting 'green zones' into 'settlements' — allowing construction activity for both residential and commercial purposes, pushing up the land's value manifold.
Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Speaker refers matter to Privileges Committee, Kejriwal, Sisodia to be summoned
Maintaining that there was no phansi ghar (execution room) on Delhi Assembly premises, Speaker Vijender Gupta on Thursday referred the matter to the Privileges Committee, which will summon former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, for an inquiry. He also directed the Privileges Committee to summon former Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the members of the House and the people of Delhi by 'distorting' history. Earlier, the Speaker had dismissed the claims of the previous AAP government that the structure, which was renovated and inaugurated in 2022 by then chief minister Kejriwal as a phansi ghar was actually a 'tiffin room' as per records. Displaying a 1912 map of the Assembly complex, he had said on Wednesday that there was no documentation or evidence indicating that the space was used for executions. 'We gave the Opposition three days to present their position, but their silence proves that this was a deliberate fraud. After consulting the Indian Council for Historical Research, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, National Archives, and historians, the House has come to the conclusion that there was neither a hanging room nor a tunnel,' the Speaker said. 'As the matter is related to patriotism and emotions, the House has decided to remove the phansi ghar and restore the Assembly premises. I am sending the matter to the Privileges Committee to investigate… It will summon the former CM, Deputy CM, Speaker, and Deputy Speaker, as the so-called phansi ghar was inaugurated under their guidance and presence,' he added. He also said that the plaque of the 'fake' phansi ghar should be removed. 'The plaque bearing Kejriwal and Sisodia's names outside phansi ghar will be removed. The 1912 map depicting it as tiffin room will also be displayed,' he said in the House. Gupta reiterated his allegation that 'falsehood' was spread in the name of Phansi Ghar and history was distorted. 'When we were in the Opposition, we were led to believe that there was an execution room here. We were also emotionally connected to the site,' he recalled. However, after becoming the Speaker, he conducted a thorough research and it was discovered that the structure in question was actually a 'tiffin ghar' (lunch room), which was 'deeply upsetting', Gupta said. He further said that the previous AAP government spent crores on this 'fake' phansi ghar and its advertisement. Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said it was 'highly condemnable' that a place where people would have consumed non-vegetarian food was called phansi ghar. 'This was a place where the British used to eat meat… AAP has hurt the sentiments of people by connecting it to martyrs… this is an insult to the martyrs.' Built in 1912, the Delhi Assembly premises was originally meant to house the Imperial Legislative Council. It later served as the Central Legislative Assembly after 1919.
