PANJIM, SEPT 21

The Second Master Plan bats for a green and clean Chennai. If the Plan is implemented, you could be penalised heavily if you throw garbage out of your house.

MARGAO, AUG 21

PORVORIM, AUG 3

It's good news that the government is worried about India losing its position as the world's leading back office. But its response to the potential threat seems inadequate. The proposal, which has been cleared by the Planning Commission, envisages building 43 new IT townships to provide a steady supply of workers besides being specifically geared towards the needs of the IT and BPO sector. The plan is to set up each IT city as a self-contained township in an area of more than 500 hectares.

It comes as a huge sigh of relief to Goans in general that the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) is united and determined in purpose to act as a watchdog in the formation of the Regional Plan 2021. At a meeting on Tuesday, the organisation ironed out whatever differences, small or large, that had led to the brief flare up between some of its leading members, to come out with a consensus position on the interim report of the Task Force that is charged with drafting the new plan.

goa town planning minister resigns: Embroiled in a controversy over the Goa State Regional Plan 2011, the state's town and country planning minister, Atanasio Monserrate, resigned from the cabinet on January 3, 2006. In less than a week, the Goa chief minister, Pratapsinh Rane, sworn in BJP legisator Manohar Azgaokar in his place. Rane described the resignation as a decision "taken in haste'. But Monserrate blamed his party colleagues for his resignation, as they did not back him in the controversy surrounding the regional plan.