TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: With just four days to go for the deadline to remove the illegal structures atop Moti Dongor, beleaguered residents are pinning their hopes on the judiciary to save their decades old structures from demolition.
A visit to Moti Dongor on Tuesday revealed that life went as usual atop the hillock, with no sign of anyone removing any structures or shifting away their belongings. The elders are confident that the judiciary will come to their rescue as hearing of the review petition filed by the petitioners is scheduled to come up in the High Court on August 16.
As a matter of abundant caution, the residents are also bracing up to file a writ petition in the High Court challenging the order of the Comunidade Administrator, serving them 10 days time to raze down the structures.
Says Maulasab Balbatti, one of the petitioners in the High Court: “We still fail to understand how the Administrator could pass the demolition order when their review petition is scheduled to come up for hearing in the HC on August 16. We will wait till August 16 to chalk out our future strategy.”
Maulasab pointed out that a government gazette notification clearly stated that Moti Dongor was declared a slum way back in 1985. “The area was declared as a slum on two occasions, one in 1985 covering an area of 7,000 sq mts and the second time in 2001 declaring an area admeasuring 16,000 sq mts as slum,” he said, demanding to know how the Comunidade Administrator could say that the Slum Act was never made applicable to Goa.
He continued: “Are the residents to be blamed for any administrative lapse? All we were told by politicians is that the government has notified Moti Dongor as a slum.”
