Team Herald
CALANGUTE: A beachside restaurant at Calangute, located next to the popular Souza Lobo Restaurant, was demolished by the North Goa District demolition squad, on Monday.
It was demolished for having been illegally constructed in the No-Development Zone by flouting CRZ rules, according to Calangute Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira. “The Calangute Village Panchayat had initiated the action against the place owned by Rajiv Arora as it was found to be constructed in the No-Development Zone on the beach. We have been following up on this with the concerned authorities for many years and it has now been demolished,” Sequeira said.
The demolition started at around 10 am on Monday in the presence of officials from the Block Development Office (BDO), Mapusa, Public Works Department (PWD), Electricity Department and a large number of policemen.
Most of the construction in the property bearing House Number 5/154 in Survey Number 176/16-B admeasuring 134 sq mtrs was demolished by afternoon. The panchayat action against the illegal construction had been initiated following complaints from stakeholders some years ago that it was done in the No-Development Zone.
It may be recalled that the owner of the demolished restaurant and the owners of the popular Souza Lobo Restaurant had been engaged in a long-running dispute in the past.
Last year, a demolition team had been sent to demolish some allegedly illegal construction by the Souza Lobo owners but had to return without doing any demolition after they could not produce any documents.
The Souza Lobo Restaurant owner had claimed that the demolition attempt had been orchestrated by the owner of the neighbouring property, Rajiv Arora.
Some years ago, a part of Souza Lobo Restaurant had been vandalised allegedly by goons engaged by the owner of the neighbouring property.
The owners of Souza Lobo had claimed that this was being done to pressurise them to sell their prime beachside property.
The Souza Lobo owner had also alleged that the owner of the demolished restaurant was being shielded by some politicians.
