the goan I network
MARGAO
Did the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) give a go ahead signal to the Margao Municipal Council to utilize the paddy fields opposite the Margao railway station for the temporary storage of the remediated waste from Sonsodo without taking note of the pendency of a matter concerning the land in question in the High Court?
Even as GSUDA officials are believed to have dispatched a communique to the Margao Municipal Council on Tuesday, a day after farmers and local residents set a 24-hour deadline on the civic body to dismantle the barricading in the fields, sources in the know said that the land acquisition matter relating to the fields, which were sought to be acquired by GSUDA in 2003 is still pending in the High Court.
Sources in the know informed that after the South Goa district Judge-3 Vincent D’Silva had termed the proceedings in the land acquisition deemed to have been lapsed by virtue of section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the office of the deputy Collector, Land Acquisition had preferred an appeal before the High Court, which is yet to be disposed off till date.
Questions have been raised in the corridors of the civic body and government circles how GSUDA could ask the MMC to utilize the paddy fields opposite the Margao railway station when the legal issues remain unresolved till date.
While the MMC had barricaded the fields ahead of the storage of the remediated waste from Sonsodo, The Goan understands that the fate of the land acquisition proceedings hangs in the balance as the High Court is believed to have posted the appeal filed by the deputy Collector for disposal.
