Public issue becomes public interest
PIL filed against unexplained concretization plan
CCP’s ‘NOC’ to GSIDC for project without CCP Mayor’s and corporators’ approval becomes backbone of the petition
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: A Public Interest Litigation has been filed, against concretization of the Miramar-Dona Paula by-pass road at a cost of Rs 66 crore, before the High Court on Wednesday, alleging that it is squandering of public funds by the government.
The petition will be heard by the Court on May 5.
The petitioner Adv Aires Rodrigues has sought that the concretization of the road be stopped and the loss to the State exchequer due to the work undertaken be recovered from the officers concerned.
The petition points out that the Miramar to Dona Paula road was hot mixed in January 2014 at a cost of Rs 1.3 crore after a sewage line was laid out in the middle of the road and the same road is now being dug up again and concretized at a cost of Rs 66 crore. He also argued that any damage or repair of the sewage line will require fresh digging up of the concrete road if laid.
The petitioner also argued that while the election code of conduct was in force, the Commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji Sanjith Rodrigues, also the Managing Director of the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), issued a NOC dated April 2, 2014, to a corporation he heads, to take up the concretization of the road without consulting the corporators.
The court’s attention was also drawn to the fact that the government had earlier concretized a portion of a road at Cuncolim at a cost of Rs 5 crore and the road developed huge cracks so much so that the concrete had to be removed and the road hot mixed once again at a cost of Rs 3.15 crore causing revenue loss. The Miramar-Dona Paul road was itself constructed from concrete when it was first done up, but huge potholes developed and the same was tarred.
Stating that there was no reason whatsoever to dig up a freshly laid and hot-mixed road thereby squandering a sum of Rs 1.3 crore in the process and to spend a further sum of Rs 66 crore in concretizing the road, the petitioner alleged that this was a gross misuse of power and daylight theft and wastage of public funds.
