MARGAO
There’s finally a ray of hope that the hammer will finally fall on the CRZ violations and illegal structures along Salcete coastal belt and along the South Goa coast.
Thanks to High Court directions in a contempt petition, demolition orders passed by the authorities such as the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority and confirmed by the Courts, including the National Green Tribunal, etc, will no longer remain pending under the lame excuse that the demolition squad is not available or that the PWD has no funds at its disposal to execute the orders.
For, the office of the South Goa district Collectorate has issued directions to the Deputy Collectors Salcete-I, Salcete-II, Mormugao, Canacona, Ponda and Quepem taluka to execute all pending orders issued by various authorities including Courts/ NGT, etc immediately and submit a compliance report to the office of GCZMA.
The deputy Collectors have been further told to ensure timely compliance of all such orders in future, stated a memorandum issued by Premraj Shirodkar, Deputy Collector (Revenue) South Goa District.
Copies of the memorandum have been sent to the Member Secretary, Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, besides the Member Secretary, Goa State Pollution Control Board.
A host of demolition orders have been awaiting execution especially in Salcete on the lame excuse that the PWD and the Demolition Squad, South, have no money or wherewithal to raze down multi-storeyed buildings.
In fact, taking serious cognizance of the situation, wherein demolition orders passed by GCZMA and later confirmed by the High Court, Supreme Court and the NGT have been awaiting execution for want of money, Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira had moved a file to the government to place funds at the disposal of the demolition squads at both North and South Goa for execution of the demolition orders. The file, however, was stuck up in the Finance Department.
What, however, has now raised hopes of the illegal structures may be finally razed down is the directions issued by the High Court in a contempt petition.
In fact, the High Court had directed the Revenue Secretary to enquire into the conduct of the officials who were responsible for compliance with the Court directions and to fix the responsibility of non-compliance on such officers.
“The Revenue Secretary must comply with principles of natural justice and give such officers full opportunity to explain themselves. After fixing the responsibility on the particular officers, an entry must be made in their confidential rolls. This exercise must be completed within six months and a compliance report must be filed by the Revenue Secretary in this Court,” the High Court directions stated.
The Court further directed that the Revenue Secretary or the Chief Secretary must also consider issuing a circular to all the concerned officials mostly involved, in compliance with Court directives to ensure prompt compliance with Court directives. “We find that even after contempt petitions are filed, the officials take matters extremely lightly and do not even bother to file any affidavit to explain non-compliance or delays in compliances,” the Court had observed.
“The excuse that the demolition squad was not available is almost routinely given on behalf of various authorities like the Panchayat, Municipality, GCZMA, Administrator of Comunidades, etc. Once there are directions issued by the Court, they cannot be delayed or defeated on such grounds. It is the responsibility of the authority to comply with directions for demolitions. Again, even the demolition squad constituted by the government or the PWD, cannot refuse to cooperate,” the HC observed.
Social activist Judith Almeida has hoped that the authorities will now execute the directions issued by the High Court in both letter and spirit and raze down the structures that have come up along Salcete coast in violation of the CRZ norms.
“We have been fighting in the courts, right from the High Court, to the NGT and the Supreme Court, so that the illegal structures in the CRZ are razed down. While the courts had upheld the demolition orders, the demolitions have been pending at the level of the demolition squad and the PWD on the excuse they have no specialised machinery to bring down the illegal structures,” Judith added.
