The Congress in Goa has promised to immediately scrap all contentious land zone conversions in the state carried out under controversial legislation and also cancel three power, rail, and road projects in protected forest areas, if the party comes to power in the 2022 state assembly polls, state party president Girish Chodankar said on Wednesday.

“Congress Government after coming to power in 2022 will immediately scrap Section 16-B along with all land conversions done under Section 16-B of the Town and Country Planning Act… Scraping of three linear projects is already announced by our (AICC) in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao. This is our firm commitment to the people,” Chodankar said in a statement.

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“We want to promise the Goans that Congress Government will scrap Section 16-B and all the land converted under the said section will be reverted back to its original status,” Chodankar also said, adding that people should not pay bribes to government officials to get land zone converted under the controversial section of the Act, because the zones would be reverted “once the party comes to power”.

Chodankar said that stopping the change in land zones and land use was essential to “protect the identity of Goa”.

Congress promised to scrap the three rail, road, and power projects which have also been demanded by civil society groups.

Thousands of trees in the Western Ghats region of Goa are slotted for felling to facilitate three projects, including South Western Railway track expansion, national highway widening, and drawing of a power line, across the protected forests in and around Mollem village located in the Western Ghats region. The Western Ghats have been recognised by UNESCO as a global biodiversity hotspot.

The opposition, as well as civil society groups and tourism stakeholders bodies, have expressed apprehension that the road and rail projects were being pushed at an “express pace” to facilitate movement of coal imported through the Mormugao Port Trust facility in Goa to steel mills in Karnataka’s Bellary district and nearby areas.