PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has issued notices to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department and Vianar Homes Pvt Ltd for allegedly violating construction licence conditions and converting parking area into a swimming pool at Portais, Reis Magos.
The Court has issued notices to TCP department, Reis Magos village panchayat and the builder Vianar Homes Pvt Ltd and posted the matter for hearing on April 29.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Advino Fernandes and Rajesh Dabholkar, both from Reis Magos in their public interest litigation (PIL) writ petition stated that the Vianar Pvt Ltd was given technical clearance for construction for residential building and had to maintain parking area. But the developer failed to provide parking area as per the approved plan.
In October 2023, the petitioners complained to the panchayat stating that the guests visiting the building were parking their vehicles on the side of the Pilerne-Candolim road and that there was no space for parking vehicles inside the property. This was causing traffic congestion everyday at peak hours.
In November 2023, the panchayat issued site inspection notice and resolved to issue a show cause notice to the Vianar Homes Pvt Ltd. But following a request by the respondent, the panchayat on January 15, 2024 passed a resolution giving 90 days time to the builder to produce necessary documents and licences.
A fortnight later, the panchayat wrote to one of the petitioners stating that it had decided to hold another joint site inspection with the officials of the TCP Department.
But this act on the part of the village panchayat was contrary to the provisions of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 and rules framed thereunder. They stated that once the show cause notice was issued, the panchayat had to decide it in accordance with law. The panchayat cannot grant any such time to parties to comply the documents and produce the same.
