ANJUNA: The Anjuna Comunidade is in action only on Wednesdays. That is the only day in the week when it meets to even respond, leave alone act decisively on cases that need urgent and 24-hour attention, where its own properties are under threat.
But there is a slight issue. Even Wednesdays come and go, and no action is taken. So it’s difficult to guess which Wednesday will be THE Wednesday when some business will be conducted and action taken against illegalities.
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It is almost a month since the complaint has been filed with regard to the hill cutting but to date, there is no concrete action from the authorities concerned especially the Anjuna Comunidade. Even the panchayat has issued a show cause, which is nothing but going through the motions of procedure when the abject violation and plunder of the land belonging to the people is obvious.
The Anjuna Comunidade has this fixed work “ethic”. Its members only meet on Wednesdays. On November 16, which was a Wednesday of course, the Comunidade had issued a show cause notice to Mangaldas Govekar seeking his reply within 15 days, i.e. December 1, which was a Thursday and therefore not the right day to take immediate action.
The non-compliance of the show cause notice could not be taken up on Wednesday, December 7 as the comunidade secretary had lost a family member, which meant that from November 15 to December 7, Govekar got away, with no repercussions.
Anjuna Comunidade Attorney, Sebastian D’Souza said two weeks, “Immediately after the complaint was filed, we issued show cause notice to Mangaldas Govekar and the copy of the same has been submitted to the panchayat, Anjuna Police and Administrator of Comunidades. We had given him 15 days’ time but he has not replied to the same as yet. The last date has elapsed.”
“We had also asked Govekar to restore the land back to its original state. Now, the Comunidade members on Wednesday will decide the further course of action,” D’Souza added.
The panchayat meanwhile had conducted the site inspection on November 10, stopped the work, and issued a show cause to the person concerned.
