PANAJI
The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority has informed the Bombay High Court at Goa that as per its inspection conducted at Girkarwada Arambol, an additional 46 structures have been found to be operating illegally and without any permissions from the GCZMA.
The 46 structures are in addition to the 170 structures that have already been found to be prima facie illegal and authorised that came to light after a four storey hotel was found to be operating illegally in Arambol.
The High Court division bench of Justice M S Sonak and Valmiki Menezes Sa, directed that show cause notices be issued to all the structures. The Advocate General Devidas Pangam told the Court that show cause notices have been issued to the owners of 64 structures so far and that the process is on to issue show cause notices to the remaining 152.
The High Court also directed that the GSPCB inspect these structures and if they do not have consent to operate to immediately seal the structures.
Meanwhile, the High Court directed former sarpanch Bernard Fernandes to reply to the show cause notice issued by the Director of Panchayats by February 19 without seeking any adjournments and directed the director of Panchayats to dispose the matter within four weeks from then.
The High Court also directed the sarpanch brother Avelino Fernandes to, in addition to his affidavit, file a report containing photographs of the structures with a corresponding chart describing the structures, survey Nos, etc.
The matter has been posted to February 26.
