OLD GOA
The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) officials inspected a site at Morombi-O-Grande-Merces for the destruction of mangroves, seven months after the incident.
Present for the inspection were GCZMA engineer Bhargavi Kelkar, Morombi-O-Grande Tenants Association chairman Shamir Coutinho, representative of the complainant and others.
It was in the month of May that a complaint was lodged against committee members of Morombi-O-Grande tenants association over the destruction of mangroves during the reconstruction of a bundh.
However, tenants chairman Shamir Coutinho denied the same and alleged that their opponents had overpowered them, and had then used their machinery to destroy the mangroves.
In the site inspection notice of the GCZMA, it is said the inspection is done on the basis of a complaint received from the senior town planner of TCP dated August 18 over the illegal conversion of the sluice gate and mass illegal destruction/uprooting of mangroves.
Though the GCZMA officials refused to speak to The Goan on the matter, tenants association chairman Shamir Coutinho questioned the logic behind the inspection, which comes seven months after the incident occurred.
“The situation then and now is totally different. We had also complained to various authorities but no action was forthcoming,” Countinho informed.
On the works being undertaken in the area, Coutinho informed that the same is done for the reconstruction of the bundh, for which necessary approvals are obtained from Tiswadi Mamlatdar and Soil Conservation Department.
