CCP resolves shifting of military establishments
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, MARCH 18
The Corporation of the City of Panjim has decided to write to Union Defence Ministry asking them to shift the camp and administrative office of military from the locality next to Panjim market.
The corporation in its ordinary meeting on Thursday passed the resolution of directing the military administration to shift their headquarters from the city on immediate basis and has also decided to put forward the proposal before the Chief Minister Digambar Kamat as soon as possible.
“We will be writing to the chief minister as well as to the Union defence minister to hand over the said place back to CCP,” Mayor Carolina Po told reporters after the meeting.
The CCP resolution came after the military station headquarters proposed closure of the parallel roads in front of army establishment, that is road leading from the city police station to Hotel Navtara along Dr Alvares Road and the road from police station to Navhind Bhawan (between SV Road and Rua Ismael Road) as part of security for the locals.
DEFENCE JUSTIFICATION: The proposal was put forward before the corporation by Brigadier K S Chauhan, station commander in a meeting with Mayor and the Commissioner Elvis Gomes on February 17, 2010.
“The security environment in the present scenario demands a high level of alertness and pro active stance. Our vulnerable areas have to be kept under continuous surveillance to prevent any untoward incident,” the letter from A J Collaco, Lt Col, Administrative commandor reads.
The letter also says that the closure of these small patches of road will not pose major inconvenience to the public. “Moreover, the security pay off will outweigh the minor inconvenience to the people,” the letter added.
STRONG VOICES: Corporators like Avinash Bhonsle, Surendra Furtado and Daya Karapurkar raised the objection to the said proposal and demanded the immediate shifting of the military establishments from the CCP owned area.
“Since it’s our property we need to take it back,” they said.
Bhonsle pointed out that since last several years the same resolution of fetching the land has been taken up but there has been no further progress on it.
“It’s better to sort out this matter at government level,” he added.
