Pernem: Despite the Tuem village panchayat issuing demolition notice to 24 alleged illegal structures under section (3) of Section 66 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act in December 2022, the developers of these structures managed to get a stay order from the Directorate of Panchayat before the village panchayat could take further action.
It’s a case of a local village body taking a people-centric decision, and the head of that institution putting a halt to that very decision.
The panchayat has now challenged the stay order in the High Court.
The entire episode has left the villagers fuming as illegal structures continue to mushroom since the alleged offenders have ignored not only the demolition notice issued by the panchayat but also stopped work and show cause notices issued earlier to them.
Questions are also being raised over the powers of the local village body since most of these constructions are being carried out without obtaining permission from concerned authorities. The notices stated that the construction was being carried out without obtaining permission from Tuem panchayat and other competent authorities.
The panchayat initially issued a ‘stop work’ notice to prevent the illegal construction of a house and further conducted a site inspection and panchnama under police protection. As per the panchanama, the construction was taken up using laterite stones, cement, sand sheets etc., without obtaining prior permission from the competent authority of the village panchayat.
The violators were also asked to produce documents and other relevant papers pertaining to the alleged illegal construction within fifteen days.
When contacted for reaction, Deputy Sarpanch Nilesh Kandolkar refused to comment stating that the matter is sub judice.
