CALANGUTE: While the TCP Minister Vishwajit Rane has been talking of stiff fines for hill-cutting, the Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) has claimed that the authorities are attempting to cover up the alleged hill cutting at Gauravaddo (E), Calangute.
CCF president Premanand Divkar, talking to reporters at the site of the alleged hill-cutting, said following a complaint by the CCF on August 8, the BDO Mapusa had conducted a site inspection of the illegal road being constructed on the hillside at Gauravaddo (E) by large-scale hill-cutting. He claimed that the site inspection was an ‘eye-wash’, urging the authorities to act against the unidentified persons responsible for clearing greenery and hill-cutting to develop the 8-mtrs-wide 250-metres-long road on the hillside.
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There was an old 2-mtrs wide bullock-cart road there which has now been made 8-mtrs wide. The road has been raised by filling 1mtrs of mud, and around 1.5metres of hill has been cut. Nobody knows who has done it. No land has been acquired. Nothing
Premanand Divkar- President, CCF
Divkar also said, no permissions/NOC from the town and country planning (TCP) Department under 17A has been obtained as required as the land is sloppy in nature. Besides there is no permission/NOC from Forest Department as the property is notified as a private forest.
According to Divkar, this construction of a road on the hillside at Gauravaddo (E) through property bearing Survey Nos. 87, 96, 92, 88, 90, 89, 46, 41 and 42 of village Calangute, is not only illegal but also highly detrimental to the pristine environment of our community. The construction of the road was stopped by the Collector North vide stop work order on February 21, 2021
