MARGAO: Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister Vijai Sardesai has not only issued a show cause notice to Chief Town Planner (CTP) Dr S T Puttaraju seeking his explanation for writing a false letter but has also received the Chief Minister’s nod to have three chief town planners instead of one in the department.
It may be recalled that on October 15, 2017 inhabitants of Chandor, Cavorim and Guirdolim had submitted a memorandum to the TCP Minister demanding the withdrawal of the false letter written by Dr Puttaraju dated June 1, 2017.
The letter addressed to Executive Engineer of PWD Division VI stated that in the Regional Plan for 2021 the State Highway 8 was shown as passing from Margao-Sao Jose de Areal-Chandor-Curchorem as shown in the Regional Plan 2001 based on a notification dated February 17, 1977.
The villagers displayed Regional Plans of Chandor to show that the SH 8 was never shown in their village and further produced Regional Plans of Sao Jose de Areal, Paroda, Xeldem and Curchorem to show that the State Highway 8 was shown passing through these villages.
Following this complaint there has been a major shakeup in the Town and Country Planning Department with the government approving three Chief Town Planners in place of one.
However, when asked about the fate of the objected letter, Vijai said the letter will surely be withdrawn by the government as it has been established to be false and added that further action will be taken up once the inquiry is over.
He revealed that the issue of the highway passing through the heritage village Chandor was discussed at the cabinet meeting and the government is with the people of Chandor and will go by the Regional Plan which showed the SH 8 passing through other villages.
“The villagers had told us that there is an alternate route available, one that is surveyed, we shall notify that as the State Highway 8 and save the heritage structures of Chandor the first capital of Goa,” he said.
The SH 8 issue erupted following the Supreme Court order banning liquor vends along highways and the PWD in a letter to the Excise Department showed a totally different route passing through the villages of Curtorim and Guirdolim as State Highway 8.
To get out of this mess, the PWD sought a clarification from the TCP as it had three different alignments of the State Highway 8 and Dr Puttaraju replied vide the letter dated June 1, 2017.
“Dr Puttaraju instead of clarifying the situation has only created further confusion by resorting to blatant lies for which he has to pay the price,” alleged Domnick Mendes, Co-Convener of the organisation formed by the villagers to deal with this issue.
Former Sarpanch of Guirdolim, Agostinho Antao, who is the convener of the village group, also pointed out to various other documents to prove that State Highway was never passing through Chandor.
“TCP always recommended a setback of less 15 mts from the centre of the road to all construction plans sent to it, which indicates that the department never considered State Highway 8 to be passing through Chandor.”
It would be relevant to note that the villagers while sending their comments on the Regional Plan 2021 had even objected to the two MDRs shown passing through Chandor on grounds that they would adversely affect the heritage monuments in the village.
