CANACONA
Alert residents led by an equally determined panch of Loliem-Polem foiled attempts by a private mobile company to erect its tower in the property of the PWD (highways) in the wee hours of Saturday.
The vigilant residents later handed over three vehicles, including two cranes and carrier-vehicle, to the police.
According to sources, unknown persons had carried out foundation work on Thursday night in the setback area across the NH-17 highway, which is metres from the Toll Fee Plaza at Polem in Loliem-Polem village.
Suspecting that the work was going on to install a tower and concerned that the construction would hinder the drainage by the roadside, some residents reported the matter to the PWD (Highways) officers at Canacona. They, in turn, lodged a written complaint with Canacona police against encroachment on government land. People continued to remain alert after suspecting an illegal construction in the area and later noticed that five vehicles, including three heavy vehicles, were stationed at the site on Saturday.
On hearing the news, Loliem Panch Santano Xavier da Costa, Nishant Prabhudessai and Vishant Prabhu rushed to the site at about 2 am on Saturday. “When we confronted the persons, they informed us that they were erecting a mobile tower,” said Da Costa.
“When we asked them to show us the requisite permissions to do so and asked them to justify their activity in the middle of the night, the persons hastily left the site in two vehicles, abandoning the labours and three heavy vehicles and their operators/drivers.”
“We immediately notified the police and a police team later took the three vehicles in their custody,” Da Costa added.
Da Costa recalled that the same company last year had attempted to illegally erect a mobile tower, but residents had stopped them and had asked them to obtain local panchayat permissions.
“On receiving applications from this company, the Loliem-Polem panchayat had asked them to produce NOCs from the departments of health, GSPCB, PWD (highways), Science & Technology, environmental clearance and other concerned authorities.”
“However, the company never complied with the panchayat’s request and the file remained pending in the panchayat. Now, this midnight attempt to erect a tower by hoodwinking the residents and local panchayat is highly deplorable,” Da Costa said.
