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Bambolim construction project: CM agrees to issue stop work orders

NT Staff Reporter

Panaji, Nov 12 Conceding to demand of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan, the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat today agreed to immediately issue stop work orders against the massive construction project coming up on the Bambolim plateau that involved hill cutting.

Earlier during the day, the GBA activists demonstrated near the Chief Minister’s residence demanding stoppage of the construction work and scrapping of the SEZs in Goa.

Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’, the GBA convenor, Dr Oscar Rebello, who led a delegation of the GBA and others before the Chief Minister today, said that Mr Kamat gave them a patient hearing and agreed to issue stop work orders against the Bambolim project immediately. While the Chief Minister studies the matter, “the GBA will have to keep a watch on this”, Dr Rebello said.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the GBA expressed shock that the chief town planner, Mr Morad Ahmed, did not place the proper facts before the Chief Minister when referring the said file to the government for regularisation. “We are also surprised that the chief town planner relied only on the explanation from the developers of the property to justify the hill cutting carried out by them. The complainants should also have been heard by the chief town planner before arriving at any decision,” the letter said.

The Bambolim project was stopped in December 2006 after the government issued a stop work order following complaints of hill cutting by the GBA. In May 2007, the town and country planning department also filed a FIR in the Agacaim police station against the developers for illegal hill cutting.

So the GBA was shocked when on November 2, 2007, the town and country planning department wrote to the developers that the matter had been referred to the government and that the government had agreed to withdraw not only the stop work order but also the FIR. Based on this letter, the additional collector withdrew the stop work order and the developer restarted work. The developers also issued front-page newspaper advertisements for plots, apartments and villas on the Bambolim plateau.

During today’s meeting with the Chief Minister, the chief town planner was also present. Reportedly, he explained that the developer in an affidavit justified the hill cutting saying that his plan was dated 2006 and was before the Section 17-A (permission for hill cutting) was inserted into the Town and Country Planning Act.

But the contention of the GBA is that in 1993, the developer was permitted change in land use subsequent to the Regional Plan 2001 “to the extent of the area within permissible gradient”. Also in 1996, the construction plan was approved and NOC given with the condition that “in areas having gradient between 15 to 25 per cent, excavation is strictly prohibited” and “as the land is sloppy, care should be taken so that minimum cutting of hill is resorted to specially within 35 and 50 contour lines”.

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