MARGAO: Just about a year ago following a complaint from the Carmona Panchayat, the Town and Country Planning Department vide a letter dated 30th August 2017 directed M/s Raheja Universal Pvt Ltd to stop work on their project in Survey Nos 64/1A and 67/1 in the village till such time the High Court disposes the petition.
The Carmona panchayat vide a letter dated August 17, 2017 had made allegations against the project and the procedure followed to grant the project the technical clearance on May 25, 2015 and the technical clearance granted to the revised plans on April 4, 2017.
The main contention of the panchayat was that the technical clearance was given without inspecting the site as it claimed that the access to the project was only 3.5 mts wide and not 10 meter wide road as shown in the plans and hence had called for a joint inspection with the TCP.
The TCP also noted that the Carmona Villagers Social Welfare Forum filed a petition against the project which was pending before the High Court and directed the company stop work on their project till the time the High Court disposes the petition.
Ironically, the High Court is not hearing this matter and the last time the matter was heard was about four months back according to Sucorro Miranda President of Carmona Villagers Social Welfare Forum. “The High Court has not even given a date for the matter as it is disposing off earlier cases as directed by the Supreme Court,” he said.
This issue actually broke out in 2007 when M/s Raheja Universal Pvt Ltd proposed to construct around 280 flats in the property and locals fought hard against the project as it would change the demography totally.
The builders then changed their plans and proposed to construct only 88 bungalows in the land admeasuring around 88,000 sq mts and even succeeded in getting a technical clearance for the project and subsequently the revised plans were also granted clearance.
There were heated discussions on the project at the Gram Sabha held on August 13, 2017 with the villagers demanding that the panchayat at least carry out an inspection of the site and the panchayat told the villagers that they had asked the promoters to keep on hold all construction work.
The villagers were demanding to know why the Panchayat’s direction to the keep work on hold was not being obeyed by the builder. However, the then sarpanch Winston Dias refused to say anything on grounds that the matter was subjudice.
Though a year has passed now, there is a sense of déjà vu over the project since the court is also not hearing the matter at the moment.
