Is CO authorised to recommend land acquisition sans Council nod?

Is CO authorised to recommend land acquisition sans Council nod?
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, SEPT 1  
In an interesting twist to the mystery surrounding the decision to acquire private property at Sonsodo for the proposed Kabrastan, land acquisition officials maintained that the government decided to acquire 16091sq mts of private property based on a letter from the Margao Municipal Chief Officer Y B Tawde.
Herald inquires have now revealed that the Chief Officer bypassed the elected Council by writing a letter to the Land Acquisition Officer on July 16 to acquire the private land admeasuring 16091 sq mts along with 14100 sq mts of land belonging to the Margao Communidade.
Interestingly, while the Margao Municipal Council had adopted a resolution to acquire land admeasuring 30,000 sq mts at Sonsodo belonging to the Margao Communidade, no such resolution was taken by the civic body to acquire the private land belonging to one Aninha Fernandes. This has raised a pertinent question whether the Chief Officer is authorized to recommend acquisition of land without the nod of the civic body and by keeping the City Fathers in the dark.
Herald inquiries have further revealed that the Chief Officer’s letter to the land acquisition office to acquire the private land in Chalta No 49 was seen by the Chairperson Savio Coutinho, indicating that the directions to acquire the private property for the burial grounds had come from the powers that be.
Both the Chairperson and the Chief Officer had no answer when asked whether the decision to acquire the private property admeasuring 16091 had the backing of the Councilors. In fact, Tawde initially maintained that the decision to acquire land for the burial grounds had the backing of the Council. But, he had no answer when his attention was drawn to his letter recommending acquisition of the private property for the burial grounds.
A councillor pointed out that the elected members would not have given their nod for the acquisition of private property for the burial grounds, asserting that the resolution was passed by the civic body only to acquire Communidade land and not private land.
Meanwhile, it is not known whether the civic body had obtained administrative approval for the proposal to acquire land for the burial grounds. And, inquiries have only revealed that the civic body has so far not deposited 25 per cent of the estimated cost of land acquisition with the Land Acquisition office.
Surprisingly, the land acquisition office has notified Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act along with the urgency clause despite the serious lacunas, including the failure by the civic body to deposit 25 per cent of the estimated cost of acquisition at the time of submitting the land acquisition proposal.