Team Herald
PANJIM: After O Heraldo published a photograph of an alleged illegal road being constructed on a hilly slope leading to a cashew orchard in Khorier, the Siolim-Sodiem village panchayat swung into action and issued a stop work order to the Comunidade of Siolim.
Sarpanch Deepa Naik and the panchayat secretary Navinya Shirodkar visited the site and took stock of the situation. Shirodkar stated that though the Comunidade managing committee members claimed that they had obtained permissions from the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department, the village panchayat had not issued any NOC for construction of the road on a hilly terrain. It is reportedly learnt that a villager had filed a complaint with the Mapusa police station on Saturday, regarding encroachment and illegal construction of the road but no action was initiated by the police.
Meanwhile, deputy sarpanch Nilesh Vaingankar and biodiversity committee called up the forest department and asked them to inspect the site as many cashew trees were felled to make the alleged illegal road. The forest department officials visited the site and found out that the trees were cut down.
“ The workers fled on seeing us and we will file an FIR in this matter on Tuesday,” stated Sagar, an official from the forest deparment .
Meanwhile, the Siolim-Sodiem Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) in a letter to the village panchayat has objected to the cutting of trees and construction of a road on war footing on the weekend stating it was a grave matter of concern about the legality of such activity.
“The land being Comunidade property, and also partly orchard, the biodiversity committee being the watchdogs for destruction of natural resources and natural green covers in the village, we file a complaint about the said illegal construction of the road which legal permissions and government approvals have been kept in secrecy to the villagers and the village panchayat members, who draw flak when it comes to being knowledgeable about the permissions and sanctions acquired for the same,” stated the complaint filed by the BMC.
The BMC also questioned the Mapusa police for refusing to act against the illegality when they had powers to do so on weekends and wondered whether the cops were going the Assagao way when their Anjuna police had refused to act in a house demolition case at the behest of DGP Jaspal Singh, who was later shunted out.