PANJIM: Coming down heavily on the inaction of the Arpora-Nagoa village panchayat and the North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) to initiate action against rampant hill cutting at Arpora, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed both the authorities to initiate appropriate action against those involved and to restore the site.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition filed by NGO Goa Foundation, the division bench comprising Justice Mahesh Sonak and Justice Bharat Deshpande said, “Simple filing of FIR neither suffices nor deters. The criminal prosecution is in addition to restoration at the site. If the party involved in illegal hill cutting is not ordered to restore the site, the authorities also do not bother to restore the same. In any case, we fail to understand why the taxpayers’ money should be used up for this purpose. The polluter pays principle must equally apply to a situation of this nature.”
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The Court also asked the NGPDA and the Arpora-Nagoa panchayat to file affidavits in this matter by September 30, 2022, while asking the panchayat to explain its inaction on the plea that it was unaware of who was carrying out this large-scale activity within its jurisdiction. Besides, the NGPDA has been asked to file an affidavit on the submission made by the Advocate General that the PDAs must inspect the site before granting any permission and determine whether permission for hill cutting is required in terms of Section 17-A of the TCP Act. Proper records of such inspection including gradient details should be maintained because, after unauthorised hill-cutting takes place, it is usual to contend that the gradient was otherwise.
During the hearing, both – the NGPDA and the panchayat assured the Court that show cause notices will be issued to the party and the same will be disposed of within two weeks.
The Goa Foundation had filed a PIL writ petition praying to stop ongoing large-scale illegal hill cutting at Arpora by the International Aircon Pvt Ltd. In April this year, the Court directed the authorities to inspect the site and ascertain the position immediately.
The matter has now been posted for further hearing on October 4.
