MARGAO, JUNE 16
At long last, the Town and Country Planning Office, Margao has lodged FIRs against as many as seven violators of the TCP Act.
Drawing flak from the Village Groups of Goa for dilly dallying on the question of lodging FIRs with the police stations against the violators, Town Planner, Margao Rajesh Naik has lodged FIRs against seven violators in the last three days.
If Naik is to be believed, of the 14 complaints received from the Flying Squad till date, the Town Planning Office, Margao has lodged FIRs against seven parties either for illegal land filling or hill cutting.
“There was no question of any dilly dallying on our part. Time was consumed in verifying documents pertaining to each and every case that came from the flying squad”, the Town Planner said.
He said two complaints received from the flying squad, and which are pertaining to Margao city have been referred to the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) as the parties had produced documents having permission from the PDA.
Two other cases are being verified as the parties claimed that they had obtained permission from the Mines Department. “All the remaining cases are being verified and action will be initiated as per law”, Naik assured.
Of the FIRs registered so far, two cases fall in the jurisdiction of Curtorim, and one each in Varca, Verna and Colva.
Incidentally, Town Planning officials say that the 48-hour time-limit set to lodge FIRs against the violators is inadequate to meet the legal requirements. “Natural justice demands that the violator is issued a notice to explain the illegality. Besides, when the party produces documents, they need to be verified and cross checked. This involves lot of time and it’s practically impossible to complete the exercise within 48 hours”, the official maintained.
The TCP officials had come under severe criticism from representatives of the villages of Goa for going slow in filing First Information Reports with the police despite complaints from the flying squads. In fact, the Flying Squad, South Goa has so far acted to complaints relating to illegal hill cutting and land filling and has issued stop work orders in as many as 26 cases across the district.
