PONDA: Nine residents of Kundaim have filed a PIL in the High Court seeking restoration of private forest land, where several trees have allegedly been felled for the development of plots without obtaining permission from the authorities. The court has admitted the petition and the next hearing will be in January.
Meanwhile, Ponda BDO Milind Velip informed that he, along with the panchayat and other involved parties, inspected the site as per a direction of the Deputy Director of Panchayat, Margao, and he would now submit a sketch of the alleged illegalities.
Kamlakant Fadte, who is one of the petitioners, claimed that the illegal construction and felling of trees is taking place on an area of 1.05 lakh sq mts in Survey no 48 /10, which has a dense canopy.
He also claimed that the property was purchased by Ramesh Fadte and others in 2014, and since March 2015, they have been developing plots and a kutcha road (500-mts long and 6-mts wide), besides constructing temporary sheds, without obtaining permission from the panchayat, Town and Country Planning (TCP) and other authorities.
They also claimed that 10 structures had already been built, and that no action had been taken despite several complaints to the authorities, including the panchayat.
