Vigilant citizens halt cell phone tower erection at Polem

ABEL P BARRETTO

CANACONA: Alert citizens stopped erection of a cell phone tower along the road at Polem, on the intervening night Friday and Saturday.

Taking advantage of darkness, one Vinod Gauda along with his team started the work of erecting a cell phone tower, when Loliem-Polem panch Santan Da Costa, Vishant Prabhu Gaonkar and Nishant Prabhu Dessai were alerted by some vigilant locals that some laborers were installing a cell phone tower close to Polem toll plaza by the road side.

When they reached the spot they found five vehicles (a Sumo, an Innova, two cranes and a truck loaded with poles) and seventeen workers trying to install a mobile tower at the site.

Even as the group was being questioned whether they had permission for tower erection, the site engineer and supervisor escaped in Sumo and Innova cars. 

Subsequently, the police was called to the site and all three other vehicles were taken into police custody and stationed at outpost Polem. 

The police also detained 15 laborers present at the site and upon verification released them in the morning. 

Gauda, the contractor, was also called to the police station for questioning; he showed NOCs from Director of Panchayat and Superintendent Engineer of PWD.

Since the contractor did not have all the permissions, PI Filomeno Costa instructed him to take permissions from all departments concerned before starting any work further.

Meanwhile, Herald has learnt that PWD (Highways division), have already lodged a formal complaint with the Canacona police, stating that the work was illegal as it has not given permission to install a cell phone tower at Polem.