Team Herald
MARGAO: The attempts of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to set up a kabrastan on the land acquired for the purpose at Sonsoddo has hit another controversy with a government report confirming that only 2,500 square metres of the land at Sonsoddo can be utilised for development works.
While the State government has informed the High Court that the MMC has identified and demarcated the said 2,500 square metres for the kabrastan project, the problem arises with the remaining portion of the land.
It may be recalled that MMC had acquired 30,145 square metres at Sonsoddo and this was seen as the solution to the long-pending issue of finding adequate and suitable land for a kabrastan for the Muslim community.
However, as per the survey report of the Goa State Urban Development Authority’s (GSUDA) consultant that was submitted to the High Court recently, the majority of the acquired land has a gradient higher than 25 per cent and is not suitable for development as per the present Town and Country Planning (TCP) Rules and regulations.
The report has also stated that parts of the remaining plot can be developed if certain rules and regulations of the TCP are relaxed.
This has raised doubts on the MMC’s ability to carry out any development work on the major portion of the land, which could be left unutilized, questioning the ill-informed decision to
acquire the land in the
first place.
