MARGAO
While ordering the status quo, the High Court has asked the Administrator of Comunidades (South) Pravin Barad to file an affidavit in reply to the petitions filed by the beleaguered residents seeking stay on the demolition. Hearing in the case is expected later this week.
The High Court order forced the demolition squad, which had requisitioned heavy machinery, besides manpower from the PWD to raze down the 100-odd structures atop Talsanzor, to postpone the operation.
Sources in the know said that the PWD is believed to have even raised a bill of over Rs three lakh to mobilize heavy machinery, besides manpower, to complete the demolition operation.
Barad had on February 10 last had ordered demolition of the 56 structures and restoration of the land at Talsanzor to its original condition. The occupiers of the structures were directed to raze down the structures 10 days or face the axe on grounds that the request for regularisation made by the residents stands rejected by the Comunidade of Margao.
In his order, the Comunidade Administrator had pointed out that the construction activity at Talsanzor has been unregulated and done in a haphazard manner, in contravention of the laws, particularly planning
regulations.
“The houses are without proper facilities for sanitation, sewage and garbage collection or disposal and pose a serious health hazard in the area. To regulate the same would set at naught the very purpose for which the lawmakers enacted law to govern construction and development,” the Administrator had stated in his order.
