CUNCOLIM: Culcolkars apparently triumph over supposed illegal bulldozing of Cancnamoddi Hill after five months of persistent objection. The Cuncolim Municipal Council (CMC) has finally resolved to revoke the licence issued to the developer by the Chief Officer to cut the hills for commercial projects. The resolution was proposed by CMC chairperson Laxman Naik and seconded by VCP Anthony Vaz.
CMC called a special meeting to discuss on the issue, which was attended by all councilors along with the CO and engineers who issued licence to the builder. The CO however said that the office had not given permission for hill cutting rather it issued permission to develop the area, which the locals found irrational.
TCP officer, who had come for joint site inspection, also said the area where development work was on does not fall under hill definition so the permissions TCP and CMC had issued to developers are valid and as per rule.
The resolution says hill cutting resolution to be adopted by the council to settle the public’s view and it's resolved to revoke the permission issued by CO.
Cuncolkars are of the opinion that the leaders, public representatives and the officers of CMC and TCP have betrayed them. They alleged that their agitations and complain have only returned excuses and instigated blame game between elected representatives and government officers.
Locals were worried that half of the hill was already cut into pieces and if it continues it will take no time to destroy the remaining part of hill too. At the same time Cuncolkars do not want to give up their fight to save age-old hill. “Our sentiments are hurt. Somebody through so called development tried to touch our faith and we will not spare them,” said Sandip Dessai, a Cuncolkar.
Cuncolkars made this an election issue. People are demanding that every aspirant who is preparing to contest upcoming Assembly elections must declare their stand on hill cutting. Voters are also demanding from the future MLAs to come in open to fight against the same. They also demanded that the future contestants should make their stand clear on hill cutting in their election manifesto.
Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias and Congress leader Elvis Gomes had cleared their stand on hill cutting. However, remaining aspirants are still hesitating to declare it openly.
Dr Jorson Fernandes, Kabir Moraes and Vijay Prabhu, who had been continuously following up with the issue after giving written complaint regarding the hill-cutting made a detail study of the Cancnamoddi hill and said it has religious importance and is emotionally attached to every Cuncolkar irrespective to cast and religion. “Uskini Azo has been worshipped by both Hindus and Catholics and its resting stone was destroyed by the developer,” said Fernandes.
The hill has natural vegetation and it's also a resource of granite rocks. It's apparently a ground water aquifer too. Some Right to Information (RTI) reports revealed that the first consultant of developer had withdrawn the project plan giving some technical reasons. Same plan was proposed again by another consultant, which was approved by TCP without site inspection and CMC issued NOC to developer.
Cuncolkars are still apprehensive if the resolution to revoke the permission issued to developer will resolve this issue