MARGAO
The High Court and now the Supreme Court have cleared all decks for the demolition of the Hotel Silver Sands at Colva, throwing up a question or two for the South Goa district authorities and the PWD “ when will the axe finally fall on the hotel and the structures which the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) had declared illegal?
Last time around, the demolition had come to a cropper when the PWD played truant on April 7. And, no agency, including the PWD has an answer now on when exactly the axe will fall on the structure, but for a different reason.
For, the PWD has estimated that the demolition operation will cost nothing less than Rs 13-14 lakh, pushing the ball into the court of the district authorities, including the District Collector and the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao, who heads the demolition squad.
In fact, sources in the PWD told The Goan that the agency has already moved a file to the demolition squad as well as the chairman of the demolition squad, informing them that it will cost the exercise a whopping Rs 13-14 lakh as the operation is to be carried out by roping a specialized agency having expertise in demolitions.
PWD Executive Engineer Prasad Panandikar pointed out that the demolition scheduled on April 7 could not be carried out for the simple reason that the JCB machines will be ineffective to raze down the huge hotel structure.
“The demolition was not postponed because of funds or fund crunch, but for want of a specialized agency to carry out the demolition”, he said.
In this respect, the PWD has now dashed off a proposal to the district authorities to grant sanction to rope in the specialized agency by placing the funds at the disposal of the agency.
Since the work will cost nothing less than Rs 13-14 lakh, the PWD has suggested to the district authorities to grant sanction, either to float a tender inviting bids from specialized agencies or invite quotations from the agencies to take up the demolition work.
Sources now say that the ball lies in the court of the district authorities and the demolition squad to take a call on whether to invite bids from specialized agencies or invite quotations to shortlist agencies to execute the demolition job. “This will certainly consume a lot of time as the process of tendering or inviting quotations is a time-consuming process”, sources said.
That’s not all. The PWD, sources said, has insisted that the District Collector or the demolition squad arrange the estimated funds to pay the specialized agency for the work.
This assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of reports that the demolition squad is yet to clear bills amounting to Rs 10-12 lakh of the PWD vis-Ã -vis demolitions.
“Since the demolition of the Colva hotel is going to be a gigantic exercise, spanning several days, the PWD has asked the authorities to deposit the funds required for the exercise”, sources added.
Complainant, Judith Almeida, the secretary of the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum has demanded that the GCZMA must now have its demolition team to prevent the farce that took place on April 7.
“I hope and pray that the authorities do not resort to a blame game, but go by the letter and spirit of the High Court order, which has been confirmed by the Supreme Court as well. I also hope the GCZMA will pursue the matter with the demolition squad and ensure that the court orders are given effect at the earliest”, Judith added.
In fact, the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum has made a fervent plea to the Chief Secretary to take necessary steps to make the GCZMA an Authority that collects several fees to have its independent demolition team to stop further delays in all matters where it issued direction which is then sabotaged for various reasons.
