Goa vigilance department suspends chief town planner pending ‘disciplinary proceeding'
The Goa government's Directorate of Vigilance Wednesday suspended Rajesh J Naik, the chief town planner (planning) of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department. An order issued by the Directorate of Vigilance said that a 'disciplinary proceeding' against Naik is 'contemplated'.
'Now, therefore, the Governor of Goa, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 10 of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, hereby places said Rajesh J Naik, the Chief Town Planner (Planning), Town and Country Planning Department, Panaji – Goa, under suspension with immediate effect,' the order said.
The suspension comes over two months after a petition was filed in the High Court of Bombay at Goa by some environmental activists. The petitioners sought disciplinary action against the chief town planner for allegedly causing loss of several crores to the exchequer by undervaluing assessment fees for the correction of a zone change of a plot under the contentious section 17 (2) of the Goa TCP Act.
The petitioners also sought directions to the state to initiate an inquiry to ascertain the loss caused to the exchequer in the assessment of fees in respect of 120 cases published in the official Gazette for change in zoning under section 17 (2) since April 2024. The activists had also lodged a complaint with the police and vigilance department in February in this regard.
Last month, the state government informed the HC that it found 46 beneficiaries of zone change wherein the fees for correction was underassessed. The state had said that a preliminary inquiry had been initiated by the vigilance department and a report would be submitted to the HC.
Rajesh J Naik did not respond to calls for a comment.
In October last year, members of several citizens' collectives, civil society and villages across the state had staged a protest outside the office of the Town and Country Planning department demanding Naik's resignation. The people had alleged that the chief town planner 'approved, endorsed and signed on' conversion of lakhs of square metres of land in the state under some contentious changes in land use laws, including under section 17 (2) and section 39 (A) of the TCP Act, causing severe damage to the coastal state's ecology.
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