the goan I network
PANAJI
State Congress President Shantaram Naik has claimed that structures within the armed forces complexes in the state were ‘illegal' if they didn't have permissions from the local bodies like panchayats and municipalities under which they fall.
The armed forces and the Navy in particular are subject to state and local laws and should in fact seek permissions and construction licences from local bodies including village panchayats and municipalities, Naik said.
Addressing a press conference, Shantaram Naik referred to a reply to a question he had raised in the Rajya Sabha asking then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar about the "Construction of Residential Units on Naval Land in Goa", in which Parrikar had said: "All Naval works fall under Item no 4 of List I- Union List of Article 246 of Constitution of India and hence are subject to only Union of India jurisdiction. Therefore, State Panchayats and Municipalities do not have any jurisdiction upon works of the Indian Navy'.
"No permission is required from the State Govt, under Goa Panchayat Raj Act and Rules framed therein or Goa Municipalities Act and Rules framed therein for undertaking Naval works," Parrikar had said in his written reply.
Naik has taken offence to this. "I challenge Parrikar to give this same reply now that he is the Chief Minister of Goa," Naik said.
"Inclusion of a subject in the Union List, does not imply that Indian Navy or any other Defence Wing of the Central Government is exempted from seeking permissions of State Government and local bodies with respect to construction permissions of municipalities, panchayats or NOCs of planning and development authorities or Town and Country Planning, conversion sanads from Collectors under Land Revenue Code, NOCs from Health Department or permission from CRZ authorities, as the case may be, etc," Naik claimed.
When asked on what basis he was making this claim, Naik said that the brief line in the constitution mentioning the list is just that -- "only a list" and did not specify that they were exempt from local laws and building codes.
"The naval authorities besides encroaching upon Goa's land are now challenging the basic authority of local bodies to regulate their construction activities. The Goa Government should do audit of Central Government projects and in the meantime issue notices to the concerned Central Government authorities with respect to their construction activities undertaken in defiance of local government and local bodies," Naik demanded.
