By: Savio Rodrigues
6th of the series of investigation
Government of Goa continued to go soft on the developer despite of objections by the administration, NGOs and the civil society. In a meeting held between GBA and the Chief Minister in which the Chief Town Planner Morad Ahmed was also present, reportedly, the Chief Town Planner explained that the developer in an affidavit justified the hill cutting saying that his plan was before the Section 17-A (permission for hill cutting) was inserted into the Town and Country Planning Act.
The FIR filed against the developers of the project in the Agacaim police station was under Section 17-A of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974. GRECL had submitted an application and affidavit pointing out that works undertaken at the Bambolim project were prior to 1997. But Section 17-A was inserted in the TCP Act 1974 through an amendment, after 1997. Hence it was not applicable.
Section 17A says:
(i) “Low lying land” means and includes any land 50 cms. Or lower than the adjoining ground level;
(ii) “Hilly land or sloppy land” means and includes any land having a gradient of 1:10 or more.
17B. Penalty for contravention of section 17A –
(1)Whosoever contravenes or abets the contravention of any of the provisions of section 17A, shall be punishable with simple imprisonment for a period which may extend to one year or fine which may not be less than Rs. 1.00 lakh or with both.
(2)An offence under this section shall be cognizable.
The Additional Collector North Goa – Swapnil Naik in his media statement said that the Government had to withdraw the stop-work order in assurance given to the High Court, since GRECL took the matter to court challenging the Goa Government order, also mentioned that since the developers work were under taken before 1997, the FIR filed had to be withdrawn and the ‘Stop-Work’ Order as well.
He further stated to the media then that the builders had approached the court alleging that they had not been given a hearing before the ‘Stop –Work’ order was issued. So the order had to be lifted to give an opportunity to both sides to present their cases.
In 2008, the Peoples ‘Movement for Civic Action (PMCA) and the Goa Foundation approached the High Court for a CBI inquiry into the disappearance of all files containing approvals relating to the construction of the Aldeia de Goa complex coming up at Bambolim, Goa. Their application stated that the files containing the approved plans had disappeared from the offices of the Town and Country Planning Department and the Panchayat of Bambolim in September-October 2007.
Though the High Court had directed the PIs of Panjim and Agassaim Police Stations in November 2007 to file reports every two weeks on their investigations in the file disappearances, even six months later the files were not recovered. Unhappy with the state of affairs, the High Court in April 2008 issued notice to the Goa Government to show-cause why the matter should not be handed over to the CBI since the agencies of the Goa Government were obviously unable to satisfactorily conclude the investigations.
