TEAM HERALD
teamheald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The exercise to restore the sand dune at Colva, destroyed by a Mumbai-based builder, got underway on Saturday.
A heavy earth moving machinery was deployed at the site as part of the restoration exercise carried out by Goa Bio-diversity Board headed by Member Secretary Dr Nitin Sawant, who personally supervised and monitored the exercise this morning.
The Colva Civic and Consumer Forum Secretary Judith Almeida along with Terezinha Fernandes demanded the arrest of the builder for mercilessly destroying the sand dune on March 5.
She lamented that the former Colva police station in-charge failed to arrest the builder when he was very much present at the Colva police station.
“The police allowed the builder to leave for UK when he ought to have been arrested under the Environment Protection Act”, she said, while urging the government authorities to ensure that the builder is traced and brought to book.
Replying to a question, Judith thanked Environment Minister, Alina Saldanha and Bio-diversity Board Member Dr Nitin Sawant for the initiative to restore the sand dune. “There were other authorities, including the CRZ and WRD which failed to respond to our appeal to take up the restoration work. Instead, the WRD officials had suggested to take up the work after monsoons. These officials should come out of their offices and see the ground reality”, she added.
