MARGAO
Owners of Hotel Silver Sands, Colva, received a further blow in its attempt to stall the demolition of the hotel as the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by the hotel challenging the order of the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
Complainant Judith Almeida, the secretary of the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum, has informed that the Special Leave Petition filed by Hotel Silver Sands in the Supreme Court did not find favour with the Apex Court when it came up for hearing on Friday, clearing all decks for the demolition of the hotel.
Speaking to the media, Judith said it is appalling how the judicial process has been abused by violators, alleging that the case proves collusion with the authorities.
“The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority had no legal authority to review its own order and that too after the GCZMA directions dated 05/12/2018 had merged with the dismissal order of the Supreme Court case. This is a classic case of collusion for illegal benefits between the authorities and the violators,” she alleged.
She added: “It is about time that the citizens stand up. The struggle for environmental justice must be fought on all fronts if we have to have a safer earth and a society that follows the rule of law.”
Expressing her total unhappiness over the manner in which the planned demolition of the Hotel Silver Sands hotel had to be postponed after the PWD played truant, Judith reiterated her stand that the GCZMA must now have its own demolition team to prevent the farce that took place on April 7.
“The Colva Civic and Consumer Forum now requests the Chief Secretary of Goa to take necessary steps to make the GCZMA, an authority which collects several fees, to have its own independent demolition team to stop further delays in all matters where it issued direction which are then sabotaged for various reasons. It is about time that governance improves,” Judith demanded.
The Colva Civic and Consumer Forum had filed an application for intervention in 2011 before the High Court of Bombay at Goa in SMWP 02/2006 and listed out several illegal structures that the Village Panchayat gave the go by to. “The Court had accepted our application and we came to become the Respondent Intervenor No 30 in the petition”, she added.
The High Court had on March 2 cleared decks for the demolition of the structures of Silver Sands hotel on the ground that the owners had failed to make out any case for interference with the order passed by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA).
In the order dated March 2, the High Court had dismissed the petition filed by the owners saying it is found to be without any merit.
Earlier, the GCZMA had found that after the order of the demolition of the hotel the petitioner had failed to place on record approvals.
