Team Herald
PONDA: The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leaders Sudin and Deepak Dhavalikar on Saturday condemned the arrest of Dr Ketan Bhatikar in the hill cutting case at Kavlem.
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MGP leader Sudin said, “Dr Bhatikar’s arrest is politically motivated.”
He dared the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department to take action against massive hill and tree cuttings in various parts of Ponda where several cases are filed before it.
It may be recalled that MGP’s Ponda leader Dr Bhatikar was arrested on Thursday evening for an illegal hill cutting without prior permission from TCP in Kavlem Village Panchayat area, based on the complaint registered by the TCP officials.
Bhatikar was booked under Section 17 A of TCP Act 1974 and was later released on bail.
A press release issued by MGP leaders Sudin and Deepak stated that Dr Bhatikar is constructing a house in a 300 metres plot and there are several houses on the slope of Kavlem Hill. One government contractor was in need of mud for completing his project so he asked Dr Bhatikar for it for which the latter agreed as the land was needed to be levelled. However, instead of imposing fines, some political leaders using connections forced the arrest of Dr Bhatikar for hill cutting.
“Recently several hills at Khadpaband in Ponda town were cut for construction of huge buildings and houses. However, despite several complaints, the TCP did not take any action. Similarly, there is massive hill cutting going on at Curti but the TCP is not taking action and no arrests are made. There are several such hill cutting and tree cutting cases in Ponda but the TCP is turning blind eye to it. The government should take suitable action into these cases,” the press release further stated.
Dr Bhatikar said, “This is purely political vendetta and the arrest is to suppress my voice. I will bounce back and continue my social work.”
“I recently demolished my old house as I wanted to carry out renovation work of my house,” he added.
