TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Massive hill clearing and cutting has been witnessed at a property within Curca village panchayat sending villagers into agitation mode against the government for granting permission through the Town and Country Planning Department under the old de-notified regional plan, which they claim is illegal.
According to villagers, the construction at Survey No 39/5 is being undertaken by one Bhagat Singh Sonawane, who has interestingly given his address as Department of Radiology, Goa Medical College Bambolim. They contend that the construction is clearly illegal because the permission was issued under the now de-notified Regional Plan 2011, because he has illegally cut trees, for which he was pulled up by the forest department and because the TCP has granted him permission without there being a six-metre access road physically existing as is mandatory.
Villagers have been running from pillar to post to at least get the work stopped and the matter re-examined.
“We raised the issue at several gram sabhas. At the most recent gram sabha last month, the panchayat even issued a stop-work order and decided to revoke the licence. However, the promoter approached the deputy director of panchayats in appeal who stayed the order of the panchayat,” Manguesh Kuttikar who has been vociferously fighting this issue and has written several letters to the Chief Minister is yet to receive a response.
The Chief Town Planner S T Putturaju told Herald that he has asked his officers to inquire into the hill cutting after he himself noticed the deep gash in the hill while passing by that side and was shocked to see it.
But villagers are quite upset. “We suspect that the panchayat has deliberately issued a stop-work order without issuing them a show-cause notice first in order that the matter will not stand the test of law when it comes up for appeal,” Kuttikar said.
In his defence, Bhagatsingh Sonawane has obtained an NOC for hill cutting issued by the then Chief Town Planner Morad Ahmed way back on January 4, 2008 under section 17-A of the TCP Act which makes it mandatory for obtaining the prior written permission from the Chief Town Planner before cutting any hilly or slopping land or filling any low-lying land which has a gradient of over 1:10.
The permission was given subject to several conditions among which was that the cutting had to be in the form of terraces and that no cutting was permissible beyond 2-2.25 m vertical for a terrace and 10-15 m horizontal form and the cutting shall not affect the neighbouring plots.
The plot was also converted from orchard to ODP, way back in 2004 through a notification in the Official Gazette dated July 13, 2004.
Putturaju said that it wasn’t possible that the permission was issued under RP 2011, and that is was most likely given under the Regional Plan 2021 but said that he would look into it. “I have asked the officials to have this matter examined,” Putturaju said adding that he himself was taken aback when he saw the section of the otherwise lush hill, laid bare.
