Assagao: Officials continued to play truant when it came to the site inspection of the medicinal spring in Oxel. While the officials of the Town and Country Planning were conspicuous by their absence, the lone sanitary inspector said it was not within his jurisdiction to do so, while the sarpanch pointed fingers at higher authorities claiming that they were not cooperating.
A few locals gathered on Saturday morning upon getting information that the health officials would be inspecting the medicinal spring at Oxel.
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Sarpanch Reshal Arporkar, Secretary, some panch members, and others were also present on the occasion.
Sanitary Inspector of the Siolim Health Centre Shripad Gauns who arrived at the site declined to conduct the inspection and said that springs were not coming under the purview of health approvals, the TCP officials shied away from visiting the area.
Locals then cornered the sarpanch and questioned her as to what steps were being taken to act against the construction coming up in the vicinity of the heritage spring.
The sarpanch then defended her stand and stated that no department was ready to take the onus of the issue despite various letters being forwarded to authorities.
“The Town and Country Planning Department had a bigger role to play and on the contrary now that department has submitted a revised plan of the project,” revealed the sarpanch.
Locals Brian Fernandes, Anastasio Mendes, along with the complainant Bluma Lobo sought to know why the panchayat was found wanting on important aspects and urged the sarpanch to issue a stop work order as the work was going on in full swing.
Arporkar however refused to issue a stop work order and pointed out that once a construction license was issued to a party, a stop work order cannot be issued and the panchayat will land itself in trouble.
Fernandes then said that he would be approaching the Environment Impact Assessment Authority to conduct a site inspection and get the project halted.
