PANJIM: In what could be termed an inhuman act by the authorities, in the midst of the monsoon the district administration on Friday demolished a house of a local person at Old Goa junction for road widening purposes.
The owner of the house, Nalesh Parwatkar, said the house has been demolished without proper notice or orders by the authorities. “The authorities barged in and refused to show us any orders despite our repeated requests, they also brought the JCB in, destroying all our belonging,” Parwatkar told the media.
He said he has a family and wondered where they will go in the middle of the monsoon. “Everything was destroyed. We haven’t been given any notice. We inquired with the panchayat and even the sarpanch told us there is no order for demolition,” he said, adding, “If we had been told we would have been ready to co-operate but there has to be a procedure for this”.
Panch Nilkanth Bhomkar questioned the hurry in the demolition. “Today was a holiday declared by the government, then why did the authorities do this. The owner belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community and this is a grave injustice to Goenkars by the government,” he said.
Repeated efforts to contact the district administration and deputy collector for their comments proved futile. Locals said the demolition is for widening of the Old Goa bypass which has met a bottleneck at the Karmali junction.
