Team Herald
MARGAO: The alleged hill cutting incident reported at Curtorim brews bigger controversy as the show notice issued by Town and Country Planning (TCP), Margao office returned back.
The notice posted to the address has been not received by the party, who has applied for technical clearance for the bungalow in the concerned survey, where alleged illegal hill cutting have been reported and now TCP will be directly going at the site and pasting the show cause notice over there.
After the issue was highlighted on Herald, TCP had inspected the site and issued the show notice to the owner of the allegedly disputed bungalow. The owner was asked to reply to the notice within seven days.
“It has been brought to my notice that the show cause notice served to the party returned back unserved. Now, as a next step our staff will be directly visiting the site and notice will be pasted over there at the ongoing construction work,” said Sandeep Surlekar, Deputy Town Planner, Margao.
He further said that TCP will act against the illegalities, mostly pertaining to the alleged rampant illegal hill cutting at the historically important ‘Furam Dongor’ in Curtorim constituency.
Herald ground report revealed that the housing complex was being built without taking necessary permission from the local panchayat. Not only trees have been felled, but also a temporary road has been built till the top of the hill.
On the other hand citizens have raised questions with regard to no strict action against the person involved in illegal hill cutting, despite confirming that there has been destruction to the environment.
The locals have claimed that this hilly area is inhabited by some of the big mammals such as leopards, wild boars, pangolins and porcupines. Hence any reclamation of land would lead to deforestation and pose a threat to wildlife too.
