By: Savio Rodrigues
7th of the series of investigation
Initially the Chief Minister of Goa owing to the pressure brought on by the GBA decide to stand firm against the project and even got the Additional Collector – North Goa to issue of ‘Stop-Work’ order. It is learnt that in the months following the issue of the ‘Stop-Work’ order by the Goa Government, representatives of GRECL had made numerous representations to the Government authorities, some of which were attended by the Chief Minister.
In fact sources following up with irregularities of the project have mentioned to this correspondent that Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka did meet with the Chief Minister days prior to the High Court hearing of the GRECL petition challenging the ‘Stop-Work’ order notice.
Subsequently, the Advocate General then in the Writ Petition No.11/08 case told the Court that the Respondent No.2 “R-2 (herein referring to the Government of Goa) shall withdraw the order dated 15/1/2007 on or before Friday, i.e. 25/1/2008.
The serious questions that is naturally raising here is what transpired between the Government authorities and petitioners that led to the Government withdrawing the order in the High Court, even though it was clearly evident that the developers were in violations of the Central and State laws.
Even the Central Intelligence agencies have corroborated the facts that Senior Congress leaders were pressurized by DB Realty to allow the project to go through, so much so that the Chief Minister Digambar Kamat decided to stand aback in midst of the fact the project continued after receiving a Supreme Court order to continue work at their own cost and risk.
While Digambar Kamat has openly denied to the media that he has any knowledge about Shahid Balwa, it in itself raises questions considering our sources in Goa, Delhi and at DB Group have informed us that he has indeed meet with Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka at least once in 2007 in Goa itself.
