DABOLIM: It was a heart-wrenching irony that saw the golden dreams of a young couple of Dabolim turn to dust. They were the first ones to build a house in what is the funnel area of the airport after getting a gold loan by offering the wife’s gold as collateral.
Gradually 44 other houses were built in the area before the authorities, mainly the Navy objected to the “illegal” structures in the funnel zone post which demolition orders were passed by the High Court and then the Apex Court 44 of them managed to go to the Supreme Court to get an interim stay on the demolitions on the ground that they have asked for regularisation except for this couple who couldn’t make it to the highest court of the land.
On Wednesday the bulldozers arrived and razed their homes and their dreams and hopes.
The house, built after procuring a gold loan was demolished as per orders of the High Court of Bombay at Goa after the owner failed to get a stay order.
“My wife’s gold is given as collateral to pay for the house, and now the house is being demolished. I was the first to build a house in this area before my neighbours, and now they all approached the court but I don’t have the strength to fight in courts anymore,” the owner said.
The owner of the house claims to have applied for a stay order from the Indian Navy, three times since 2014 but to no avail.
The desperate family claims that they will not move from the area. “We have nowhere to go and no matter how many times they try we will stay here only, they have also claimed issues with the measurement,” he said.
Many questions arise; the first being has humanity completely gone from the lives of those who rule. No one is calling for disobeying the court’s orders but a more humane administration could have refrained and at the very least asked if they could hold on to this one demolition in the spirit of collective natural justice.
