MARGAO
Ahead of the hearing of the Colmorod land acquisition case, the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has deposited an amount of Rs 2.73 crore in the High Court as per the court's directions.
The matter in respect of the contempt petition in connection with the Colmorod land acquisition case is scheduled to come up before the High Court on January 3.
Sources, however, say that the Margao municipality is expected to seek time to file a reply and a detailed affidavit in the matter.
Sources in the MMC informed that the civic body has already deposited an amount of Rs 2.73 crore in the High Court. The High Court had last month issued directions to the MMC to deposit the amount in the court.
An MMC official informed that though the civic body has deposited the amount, the actual amount payable by the civic body will be subject to the order passed in the land acquisition matter by the Land Acquisition officer.
Incidentally, the MMC has engaged a new lawyer, senior counsel, Adv Parag Rao to appear for the Civic body in the contempt petition. The development comes after the municipal High Court lawyer, Adv Sandesh Padiyar withdrew himself from the case and handed over the files to the civic body last week.
The contempt proceedings in the High Court had raised a hue and cry in the civic body after the court issued directions to deposit Rs 2.73 crore in the court.
The civic body held a special meeting last month to discuss the matter, wherein city fathers cutting across party lines had made a strong case against proceedings with the land acquisition. City fathers had even called to drop the land acquisition proceedings so that the civic body need not deposit Rs 2.73 crore.
Councillors had claimed that the land admeasuring 2,000-odd square metres is not worth acquiring at the cost of Rs 2.73 crore, even raising questions on the criteria adopted by the Municipal technical section to calculate the cost of acquisition.
