Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Friday warned that allowing illegal construction of BJP leader Shaina N C at World Heritage Site, Old Goa will set a bad precedent and will trigger destruction of heritage places in the State.
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Chodankar addressed the media during the protest organised by the Congress Party at the heritage site, Old Goa where a bungalow of the BJP national leader is being constructed within the protected area. He alleges BJP government of issuing illegal permissions through Town and Country Planning (TCP) department; health department etc adding that the construction licence issued is also in violation of the law.
The Congress president demanded that all permissions be revoked immediately and all those responsible for issuing illegal licences be suspended, and the construction at the heritage site be demolished at the earliest.
Former Attorney General and party’s legal cell chairman Adv Carlos Alvares Fereira said that the “Nall” technique being used to legalise the structure or loja is totally illegal.
“Apart from CRZ, the land is a protected site and we will protect all holy sites not only here in Old Goa but also all over Goa,” he said.
Congress spokesman Arch Tulio de Souza said that an illegal structure in total violation of the law is being put up in survey number 4/1 in a protected area through misrepresentation and fraud.
De Souza said that the plot in question is in the core area of a heritage site protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act 1958 and Rules 1959, where only token repairs-of an existing structure is permitted, in this case a small hut. This is also part of the NDZ falling within 100 metre of the Mandovi River as per the 2011 Notification of the CRZ.
