MARGAO
Supreme Court’s all-clear signal to the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to raze down Hotel Silvers Sands, Colva, has left the Public Works Department (PWD) to tread a cautious path, but for a different reason.
Records show that the PWD has been left high and dry over the payments towards demolition operations running into lakhs of rupees, throwing up a moot question “ why should taxpayers’ money be spent on demolitions when the violators are required to raze down the illegal structures, failing which the authorities are mandated to recover the expenses under the provision of Land Revenue code as arrears of land revenue?
Past experience shows that the demolition squad, South, had got the PWD to demolish many illegal structures upon being requisitioned by the concerned departments, including the GCZMA, but the PWD hasn’t yet received the payments towards the cost of demolition.
Consider this. The operation to demolish the Hotel Silver Sands is now estimated to cost a whopping Rs 13.89 lakhs through a specialized demolition agency. Realization, however, seems to have dawned on senior PWD officials that the whopping amount of Rs 12 lakh is due to the department by the government agencies which had requisitioned its services in the recent past for demolition operations.
While the PWD had skipped the demolition of Colva hotel on grounds the operation requires the services of a specialized agency, PWD officials in private say the requisitioning department cannot abdicate its responsibility in recovering the expenditure from the violators. In the instant case, the PWD has insisted on placing the funds towards the demolition operation, estimated at around Rs 13.89 lakhs before it carries out the demolition as a depository work.
Social activist, Judith Almeida, has cried foul over the delay by the office of the demolition squad to recover the dues from the violators after the demolition operation, leaving her to wonder why the taxpayers’ money is spent on the demolitions when the violators are required to foot the bills.
What has further agitated the social activist is the decision of a senior district administration official to withdraw a notice issued to a party, whose structures were razed down by the demolition squad, to pay the dues running into lakhs of rupees.
In a letter dashed off to the South Goa district Collector, Judith has questioned the senior revenue official for withdrawing a notice issued to a party to make good the amount spent on the demolition of structures. In support of her contention, Judith has drawn the attention of the Collector to the GCZMA demolition order, mandating the violator to raze down the structures within a specified period and in default the order directing the Deputy Collector to remove the structures and recover the expenses form the violators under the provision of Land Revenue Code as arrears.
“I will wait for the Collector to take action and order recovery of the demolition charges from the violator. If the Collector and the GCZMA do not act in the matter, I will take move the appropriate forum, including the court, to recover the taxpayers’ money spent on the demolitions”, Judith warned.
