John Rodrigues
It is with a immense suddenness that I am bringing forth the kind of so called “Development” we all are endorsing to these days and in doing so I thought I would concentrate on my own locality first rather than poking my nose around on someone else affairs.
I have been now since my childhood traversing the roads from Arlem Circle to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda and I have been noticing like others the recent development in Fatorda, especially the way the PWD is carrying on the road widening in whole of Fatorda including the road in question i.e. Arlem circle to Pt. JN Stadium.
At first glance as a resident I will say what is happening is good but so also while keeping some reservations on the way the road is getting widened I have some doubts too. The foremost thing that comes to my mind is the way the road is pushed towards the Chowgules Maruti Showroom in Fatorda, and why I said pushed is because it gets so much onto the right hand side while travelling from stadium to Arlem circle is that it almost covers the whole of the setback of Lake Plaza building. I wonder thereafter, that which law gives the PWD the power to encroach into anybody’s setback. Now, here we have to understand two things is that there is a building/house setback we leave which is usually 3mtr, and, I will say in the case of Lake Plaza considering the height of the building it should be 6mtrs. What the PWD has done is they have not only encroached into the road widening (acquired) area but have also without any regards to building laws entered the building setback.
I want to know is from when the people started endorsing such type of unplanned development and for that matter why are the concerned authorities silent on such things. The same illegality continues again near the Arlem circle and this time the PWD goes ahead to in fact tar the front setback of Mehboob Towers, Arlem, in whose setback better not ask but People stand for buses and park their vehicles, thus making it a venerable point for any accidents to happen all due to the blessings of the PWD unregulated and gross illegality by encroaching on setback.
Some intellects after reading the article would say it is prima facie illegal, setting a bad precedent going forward as far as development is concerned and the law interpreters might pick the words “prima facie”, “illegal” and “public” and start a suo moto petition. But, my intention to pen this article is to only create public awareness in such matters and for the government to reflect on the so called “Development” card they play every election jeopardizing the lives of the very public they want to do good.
