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10
STATISTICS
1- 15 April, 2015
Land filling and hill cutting
rampant across Salcete
Raison Almeida
President, Green Goa
Foundation
from Margao City
Cases reported at Margao Town police station
for the year 2014 & 2015 (Upto 10.3.2015)
Hill cutting and land filling are major
issues related to Margao for that matter
Salcete. The moment any one complaints
about illegal land fillings or hill cutting
the flying squad which is under supervision of deputy collector comes and they
issue a stop work order on that construction work. Actually, once this order is issued they should give directions to police
and other authorities to ensure that the
work is really stopped. But by and large
the work goes on unabated.
The construction is eventually completed and people take possession of the
said houses and sites and by doing all
other necessary government formalities.
No one stops them. Even open dance
floors are put up this way.
Frankly speaking authorities don’t
have power to stop these works. It is only
on paper. There are lot of examples of
cases which I myself have filed. I have
stop work order of land filling in many
cases but the work is going on continuously. Chichinim , Margao and lot of
other places such cases are there.
Moreover, these are not small areas but huge properties. In one case
a road was passed through a paddy
field and one fellow was building an
house there. Stop work order was
given for this project when he was
starting this construction. Now, he
has finished his construction and
he is already staying in that house.
What significance do such stop
work orders have? I even filed a
petition in the high court and high
court directed the deputy collector
to decide the matter. Till today it is
pending, but the person has finished
building the house and is already
staying there!
I strongly believe that our authorities have a lot of power vested
in them. But because of vested
interests , political influence, corruption –bribes etc. they are not taking
appropriate action. Authorities can
direct the police to get the people
doing illegal land filling or hill cutting
arrested under criminal provisions
for violating the government orders.
But these cases are just not taken
to logical conclusions. They issue
stop work order and yet eventually
legalise it.
New Police station at Fatorda
Government intends to set up a Police Station at Fatorda.
However, the detailed proposal is yet to be finalized.