MARGAO: Concerned citizens of Goa have urged the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister to walk the talk and take action not only against the illegal bungalow constructed in a protected site at Old Goa but also against the government officials, who were involved in granting fraudulent permissions to the structure.
While addressing the media persons on Friday, here, the citizens demanded that Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane immediately form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into how various government departments colluded with the project proponents to get the approvals for the construction despite there being numerous glaring errors.
Furthermore, the citizens pointed out that the original land owner had already filed a police complaint stating that his signatures had been forged and that he had never applied for permissions for the project. They questioned why the authorities had not bothered to look into this aspect as well.
“The TCP Minister has been taking action recently against various illegalities. We also welcome his statements on buffer zones and not allowing constructions near monuments. However, we hope that he looks into this major illegality with the same spirit and sees that the bungalow is demolished and how the TCP Department was complicit in this fraud. We want an investigation into the TCP’s Conservation Committee too, which cleared this project instead of protecting our heritage,” said Glen Cabral, a resident of Old Goa.
“The government has to take action and suspend the officials involved as the sheer amount of illegalities involved is staggering. This must be the first ground plus one structure covering 400 sq mts that has been approved in a CRZ Zone. Only the Archaeological Survey of India (ASO) objected initially but the project still continued. This has to be looked into. Otherwise tomorrow someone else will get permission to sell land of heritage monuments,” Glen added.
Anthony D’Silva explained that they had submitted memorandums to the eight Salcete MLAs and plan to submit the same to all MLAs with the demand that each of these MLAs raise a starred question in the forthcoming Assembly Session so that the issue of the illegal bungalow at Old Goa is discussed.
“It’s very important that the Assembly discusses this topic as the public needs to know the status. It’s been more than 200 days since the Satyagraha started and months have passed since the TCP revoked the licence and the panchayat issued orders for demolitions. But the bungalow still remains. If the government cannot demolish a structure that has come up illegally in a heritage site, it sets a bad precedent for all heritage monuments in Goa,” D’Silva added.
