MARGAO
Will Monte Hill “ perhaps the last vestige of the city’s green cover “ retain its heritage value if the real estate developers and land owners secure their properties along the Chapel-TB Sanatorium road with compound walls and tin sheets?
Successive South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) members had in the recent past turned down applications from the owners of the land (on the slope) atop Monte Hill for conversion of zones on the ground that the hill will lose its aesthetic beauty and heritage value if the green cover gives way for settlement.
While rejecting the change in zone permissions, the SGPDA’s objective was simple “ leave the area atop the hillock as it is without any disturbance to retain the its green cover.
No doubt, the zone has remained unchanged, but a slow and perceptible changes are taking place along the Chapel-TB Sanatorium stretch of the Monte Hill road “ a jogger’s paradise, with the owners securing their properties with compound walls.
Under the TCP Act, land owners are not barred from securing their property with compound walls, though the land continues to be notified as a no-development zone area.
Otherwise, consider this: A year ago, a city-based real estate developer had taken everyone by surprise when he cleared a portion of the vegetation in his property, dumped a truck load of debris in the property, before securing it with a compound wall.
While heritage lovers were quick to raise an uproar over the activity, the retaining wall, with the entrance shut with tin sheets, still stands tall. When the TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai had descended atop the hillock after taking over the reigns of the TCP portfolio, he promised to get the builder go for vegetation, including creepers to retain the heritage value of the area.
It’s a year now since the TCP Minister had reassured concerned heritage lovers that he would invoke the relevant provisions of the TCP Act to get the builder grow vegetation in the property. Sadly, neither has the builder neither grown any creepers nor vegetation in his property to retain the heritage value, but the same builder has returned back again to clear vegetation from his property at the fag end of the road, with plans to secure his property with a compound wall.
Says Margao Municipal Council councillor, Glen Andrade: “Monte Hill will lose its heritage value once compound walls come up all along the Chapel-TB Sanatorium road. I need not tell this. These are the sentiments of the people, who are looking up at the authorities to save the area”.
Andrade said he has a simple to question to ask the powers that be and the authorities “ will Monte Hill enjoy the heritage status once compound walls come up along the road and the area is cleared of vegetation. He, however, exuded confidence that the TCP Minister will come up with a solution to the entire issue at the earliest.
Citizens and officials alike in private suspect a ploy by the property owners to go in for compound walls under the guise of securing their properties in a bid to secure the change of zone in the future.
