TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE: The site inspection scheduled for Friday by the Calangute Village Panchayat pertaining to illegal hill cutting and retaining wall of the Xavier Retreat Centre at Baga was cancelled due to lack of jurisdiction, since the area comes under the Village Panchayat of Arpora-Nagoa.
The deputy director of panchayats, North, in a letter to the Calangute VP asked them to put off the inspection, after Director of the Xavier Retreat Centre, Fr Ronnie D’Souza too intimated them that he had sent a copy of the letter sent to the chief minister to Calangute VP by mistake.
Speaking to Herald Joseph Sequeira said, “The scheduled site inspection at the Xavier Retreat Centre, Baga, based on directives of deputy director of Panchayats, North, had to be cancelled upon receipt of a letter from Fr Ronald D’Souza, Director of Xavier Retreat Centre, where he informed us that the copy of the letter sent to Chief Minister of Goa over the illegal hill cutting was mistakenly sent to Village Panchayat of Calangute and apologized for the mistake. Fr D’Souza also directed us not to conduct any site inspection in Survey No 250/1 at Baga, as the area comes under the jurisdiction of Arpora-Nagoa Village Panchayat and confirmed that the Arpora-Nagoa Village Panchayat had already carried out the site inspection. Fr D’Souza appreciated our concern for the Xavier Retreat House at Baga,” Sequeira said
“We wanted to resolve the issue amicably by requesting the Parish Priest of Calangute, Fr Cipriano D’Silva and Fr Ronald D’Souza, to call on the WRD Minister Dayanand Mandrekar and get the work started immediately. Our immediate concern is to save the Xavier Retreat Centre and not the political infighting among the BJP MLAs. As of today, nobody has approached the WRD Minister, added Sequeira.
“Though the Xavier Retreat Centre, Baga, falls under the jurisdiction of Revenue Village of Arpora-Nagoa we took an interest as the Catholics are the parishioners of Calangute Church and our Parish Priest Fr Cipriano D’Silva has concern for the historical centre and parishioners. We are now at the dead end with the letter from the Director of Xavier Retreat Centre, Baga, but we would have loved to resolve the issue amicably,” he said.
The Director of Xavier Retreat Centre, Fr D’Souza has clarified that the letter requesting for cancellation of the site inspection was sent to the Village Panchayat of Calangute based on a letter from deputy director of panchayats, North Goa, who cancelled their earlier letter addressed to Calangute VP. Besides, the letters were mistakenly marked to Village Panchayat of Calangute, while Village Panchayat of Arpora-Nagoa has already carried out a site inspection of the illegal hill cutting.
