MARGAO
Town Planner, RM Borkar issued the stop work order on Wednesday, around a week after Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai issued a diktat to the TCP officials to stop construction work at the site until further orders.
The TCP's stop work order comes ahead of the site inspection fixed by the Carmona village panchayat in the first week of September and the order issued by the Panchayat body to the realtor to stop work at the site with immediate effect.
In the stop work order, the Town Planner referred to the petition received by the Carmona village panchayat raising certain allegations concerning the approval granted for the project. Borkar also made a reference to the village Panchayat letter dated July 27, 2017 directing the realtor to refrain from going ahead with the construction activity at the site. "You are also aware that a writ petition has been filed by Carmona Villagers Social Welfare Forum in the High Court against your project and the decision of the Court is awaited," Borkar said in the stop work order.
This is the first time in a 10 year old Raheja saga that the TCP has directed the Mumbai-based realtor to stop construction work on the 88 bungalows in the sprawling property admeasuring around 88,000 sq. mts overlooking the picturesque River Sal since the department had granted technical clearance for the project three years ago in 2015.
Earlier this year on April 4, 2017, the TCP had issued technical clearance for the revised plans submitted by the Mumbai-based realtor.
The Goan understands that the Senior Town planner has issued the stop work order after the same was vetted by the Chief Town Planner, Senior Town planner, Secretary, TCP before issuing the order on Wednesday.
TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai in his note to the TCP officials had issued directions to stop all construction activity at the site until all issues raised by the Panchayat body in the petition addressed to him are resolved. In the petition, the Panchayat body had raised the issue of road bottleneck along the road leading to the project site.
