Old Goa, a UNES CO World Heritage Site, has been thrust into fresh con troversy after petitioner John Baptista Mascarenhas lodged a formal complaint with the National Monu ment Authority (NMA), de manding the cancellation of permission granted for the new Old Goa police sta tion. He contended that the project, coming up within the notified Preservation Area, was approved based on flawed and misleading documents. In his September 2 com plaint to the NMA’s Chair man, Member Secretary, and Whole-Time Member, Mascarenhas said he dis covered serious irregular ities after inspecting the file at the office of the Chief Town Planner. “During this inspection, I found that no owner ship document was sub mitted to the competent authority. This raises a se rious question as to how the project was approved without valid ownership proof.
Furthermore, the file contains an outdated Form I & XIV showing only two occupants, where as the latest Form I & XIV shows a third occupant,” Mascarenhas stated. He argued that the ap proval refers to Survey No 117/1, which does not ex ist in official records, while only Survey No 117/0 is valid. The latter, he stressed, is a classified Preservation Area where no fresh con struction is allowed except for repairs, making the per mission “illegal.” Mascarenhas also high lighted alleged misrep resentation in the Archae ological Survey of India (ASI), Goa Circle inspection report, which claimed own ership documents were submitted and that no no tice was ever issued.
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In fact, he said, a notice for unau thorised construction was served to the Police Inspec tor on February 5, 2013. He alleged that the Goa government had also not implemented its commit ment to declare the NH stretch between monu ments as a pedestrian road and to notify both sides of this stretch as a No Devel opment Zone (NDZ). This, he said, has resulted in permissions that contradict heritage protection norms. Mascarenhas further not ed that Draft Heritage Bye Laws prepared by INTACH remain unnotified, leading to arbitrary approvals and putting the World Heritage Site at risk.
In light of these issues, he has appealed to the NMA to cancel the permission granted for construction in Survey No. 117/1, prohibit new development in Preservation Are as, direct the Goa government to notify the pending Herit age Bye-Laws for Old Goa, halt all unauthorised construc tions, and permit only repairs with prior written approval from the competent authority. Reacting to this, Cumbharjua MLA Rajesh Faldessai claimed that all permissions had been obtained before the construction of the new police station and denied any dis crepancy in the Survey Number.
“There is no controversy over the construction of a new police station since the land belongs to the Goa govern ment. I have all the documents. The police station is the need of the hour as thousands of people visit Old Goa every day. The government had already tendered the work at a cost of Rs 5.86 crore, and work will start after rain sub sides,” he said
