CANACONA: With just days left for the tourism season to begin on one of the more famous Southern most beaches of Goa, demolition squad led by Canacona BDO razed structures belonging to eight persons which were standing by the beach side at Agonda on Thursday.
A resident of Agonda had petitioned the High Court of Bombay at Goa over the construction and presence of permanent structures within the limits of CRZ and had named 12 respondents including Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), Agonda panchayat, Canacona BDO and Deputy Collector of Canacona.
The High Court in its order last month had directed the authorities to conduct proper survey of the illegal structures on Agonda beach and issue notices to demolish them within six weeks or to demolish by using government machinery and recover the cost from the parties.
Previously, in another order, the National Green Tribunal had directed the South Goa Collector to demolish 60 odd illegal structures on Agonda beach.
Acting on the NGT order, the authorities had arranged for the demolition of these structures in last May.
But the demolition was stalled as the aggrieved parties knocked the doors of judiciary and stayed the order for not serving notices by the authorities.
Later, sensing trouble most of the owners of these structures, except for the eight demolished the structure on their own and brought the land to its original form.
As the eight operators didn’t demolish their structures within the time frame as per the High Court order, BDO Vaman Gaonkar with the help of demolition squad razed most of these structures to the ground implementing the High Court order in letter and spirit.
Sources present during the demolition drive which started at about 10 am on Thursday informed that the demolition squad was accompanied by a strong police force of over 50 personnel who had come in three buses and were present till the drive ended late in the evening.
Sources also informed that the demolition drive will continue on Friday till all the structures are removed.
Mamlatdar and Executive Magistrate of Canacona Raghuraj Phaldesai was also present during the drive to see that no law and order problem arises during the drive
“The demolition drive was smooth and no owner of the demolished structures resisted the action in any form,” said an official present during the drive.
