Activity took place in no development zone, claim locals
While the locals have expressed concern about blatant destruction of beach vegetation and illegal felling of trees in no development zone in Candolim, the authorities including the village panchayat appear to be unimpressed.
Almost 15 days back, the villagers wrote to the local panchayat bringing to its attention about the illegality in survey no 120/1 located in Bamon vaddo, Candolim where they alleged that the owners of the property have indulged in destruction/cutting of the vegetation (lingud) on the sand dunes.
“The activity is in violation of Environment Protection Act, 1986. The owners have undertaken a private survey of plot survey no 120/1 and have incorrectly marked their demarcation points. Fencing is in progress and we fear that our existing traditional access to the beach will be blocked,” the villagers said, in a letter addressed to the secretary of the Candolim panchayat on October 21.
In the same letter the villagers urged the panchayat to intervene in the matter and issue a stop work order for the alleged illegal activity and conduct an inspection of the site.
Since the Candolim panchayat for nearly two weeks failed to take action in the matter, the villagers approached the Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) which has now knocked the doors of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), North Goa collector, forest conservator and other authorities requesting them to initiate action against the developer.
“In spite of knowing the facts about the beach destruction, the local authority (Candolim panchayat) has turned a blind eye to such illegal activities carried out by the developer which is in violation of CRZ rules and Environment Protection Act, 1986. Even after repeated follow ups the local authority (Candolim panchayat) slept on the issue only to allow the developer to carry out mass destruction of the beach environment,” said Premanand Diukar, President of CCF.
He further urged the concerned authorities to look into the matter on priority, conduct an inspection of the site and initiate action against the developer to stop further destruction of the beach.
