TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Will the Town and Country Planning department’s circular on the mandatory requirement of existence of roads before the agency grants technical clearances and licence, help revoke the construction license issued to the controversial 85 room hotel project in Curtorim.
When Herald contacted Chief Town Planner S T Puttaraju to shed light on the matter, he was quick to assert that any law or circular has only prospective effect, adding that the TCP circular will be applicable only for future projects.
Asked specifically whether the new circular will be applicable to the Curtorim hotel project where locals are insisting that there’s no eight meter road on the ground, Puttaraju said “any circular or law has no retrospective effect”, clearly indicating that the Curtorim hotel project is not on TCP agenda for the moment.
When his attention was drawn to the recent statement by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar that the technical clearance for the hotel project will be withdrawn for want of the eight meter road to the project site, Puttaraju said “so far, my office has not received any instruction or direction from the chief minister”. The chief town planner, however, hastened to add that the TCP Margao office will be in a better position to answer queries on the Curtorim hotel project.
Both Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco and Curtorim Panchayat have maintained that the construction licence issued to the hotel project will be revoked no sooner the TCP withdraws the technical clearances to the project as announced by the chief minister.
“The Panchayat had issued the construction licence based on the technical clearances by the TCP. The panchayat will have no objection to revoke the licence if the TCP withdraws the technical clearances,” reiterated acting Sarpanch Simon Barretto.
In fact, Curtorim panch members in private say the ball now lies in TCP court after the chief minister’s announcement in Herald that the government would withdraw the technical clearances as it was found out that an eight meter wide road was not existing on the ground.
