VASCO
The Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) continued its drive on Tuesday to partially demolish three houses in the airport funnel zone at Dabolim based on height restrictions.
The house owners, however, claimed that their structures had all valid permissions and approvals, including a Naval NOC.
The house owners said that it was a matter of grave injustice that their houses were being demolished at the instance of the Navy.
“It is sad that our houses built after obtaining all legal approvals are being demolished by the MPDA at the instance of the Navy through the High Court orders. It is even more shocking that our houses are being demolished despite having a valid Naval NOC to construct a house in this area,” claimed the resident.
Allegations of Injustice
The resident claimed that they had obtained all approvals, including construction licence from the panchayat, TCP approvals, occupancy certificate, sale deed, sanad and MPDA approvals.
“We even waited till we got the Navy’s NOC. The Navy then permitted us in 2013 to build a house at a height of maximum 3.5 metres. After we got the Naval NOC, we began the construction and completed the house in 2016. To be on a safer side, we decided to have our upper slab at 3.4 metres to have a ten centimetres gap between the maximum height permitted to our house,” said the resident.
“It is sad that eight years later we get a notice served that the height of the house is extra and we have to face demolition. After giving us an NOC to construct a house of 3.5 metres height, they are now saying that we can only have a height of 1.6 metres and they are demolishing the balance height of 1.8 mtrs of our house.”
“We had sought time and even submitted our papers to the MPDA but they have not accepted them and sent a demolition squad to our area to partially demolish our houses,” said the resident.
Naval NOC
Another house owner also maintained that they had all the valid permissions and approvals from the local bodies.
“We purchased the land and constructed the house only after taking the Naval NOC. Authorities have arrived here for the partial demolition of our houses and they are not even giving us time to offer an explanation or take any steps. We had permission to construct our house to a height of 3.5 metres but I built a house of only 3 metres in height to be on a safer side.”
“They are now saying that they will demolish one meter of the house height and I don’t know how the house will look like without the proper roof and half of the height of the house demolished,” said the house owner.
No official word
Meanwhile, efforts to contact the Naval PRO failed as the phone was switched off and the PRO was not available for any comments from the Navy.
