‘Illegalities' atop Monte Hill continues unabated

MARGAO 

Margao's lush green cover atop the picturesque Monte Hill - perhaps the city's last green vestige, is under a serious threat of extinction.
Otherwise, just consider this: On March 3, just days before the declaration of Assembly election results, a plot of land, notified as orchard zone in the city ODP, was sought to be filled up without permission. As per forest officials, a couple of trees were chopped down and the thick vegetation just vanished from the plot. An uproar later forced the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) to direct the builder to remove the mud dumped in the property.
Nine months later, on November 7, the builder has secured his property with a compound wall. Barring a couple of trees, the tree and vegetation cover has gone missing from the property, throwing up a question or two for the city planners as well as the TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, who had in the past vowed to preserve the greenery along the Monte Hill road passing adjoining the Chapel.
When The Goan called up SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar to shed light on the construction of the compound wall by the builder, he was quick to reply that the wall has been constructed with permission from the PDA. In fact, he went on to say that the orchard zone does not bar construction of compound wall. The SGPDA member secretary, however, had no answer to the disappearance of the tree and vegetation cover from the property in question. "As per the planning rules, no construction activity is permitted in the orchard zone. However, there's no ban on building a compound wall by the owner to secure the property," he said.
Questions are being raised why the SGPDA did not make the property owner to restore the trees and vegetation on the plot of land before granting permission for the compound wall. In fact, fears are being raised in city circles that owners of other properties, lining along the stretch of road from the Chapel to the far end of the T B Sanatorium, may follow suit and clear the tree and vegetation cover from the orchard zone with no action forthcoming from the authorities.
Says Margao Comunidade President Savio Correia: "The green cover at Monte Hill along the Chapel road to the far end of TB hospital is the last vestige of greenery in the city. The authorities may say that rules do not bar construction of a compound wall in an orchard zone, but they failed to see through the game."
He said the authorities should see through the tactics adopted by the property owners to get the orchard land converted into settlement. "You cannot rule out the possibility of the property owners knocking the doors of the SGPDA again for change in zone on the excuse there's no more green cover left in the land in question," he said.
Incidentally, the SGPDA was flooded with 2-3 requests from the property owners to change the orchard zone at Monte Hill to settlement during the finalisation of the controversial Outline Development Plan for Margao. Savio Correia, who was heading the panel set up by the SGPDA to scrutinise the applications had in December last rejected all requests for change in zone on ground that Monte Hill will lose its aesthetic value if the zone is changed from orchard to settlement.
It was then strongly argued by greens that Monte Hill will lose its value and character if the tree cover makes way for settlement. Sadly, the land in question still remains an orchard zone, but the tree cover is fast disappearing.