PANAJI
Taking strict cognisance of the rampant road digging activities, North Goa Collector R Menaka has issued order imposing increasing the period of ban on digging or cutting of roads.
Now, neither government nor private agency can undertake any digging or cutting of public road without prior permission from the Collector unless it is urgently needed for some repair work.
The ban has been used under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the Collector on digging and cutting of all types of roads, including national highways, State highways, major district roads, road-shoulders, lanes, thoroughfares, etc.
Menaka, further in her orders said that no person, agency, organisation, government department, local body, public sector undertaking, etc shall undertake any digging or cutting of any of the public roads and its shoulders including on all the city and village roads without prior written permission.
The ban is however not applicable to any road digging done by any government public utility service providing departments such as Electricity, BSNL and PWD for urgent repairs of electric cables, telecommunication cables and pipelines. Also digging by local bodies for repairs of road and for diversion of water in emergency cases shall not attract restrictions contained in this order.
However, the Collector has ordered to cover such digging immediately within 6 hours. Also such digging should be repaired within less than 24 hours covering either by pavers or cement.
Earlier, the Collector had issued an order on August 17,2020 restricting digging of roads for 60 days, which was effective till October 15. Now, the new order will remain in force till October 31.
