This illegality is here to stay HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, DEC 5 Who is most corrupt? Is it the village panchayats or government officials? This question has become a subject matter of debate ever since the Government proposed an amendment to the Goa Panchayati Raj Act.
While the Government cites rampant corruption in the village panchayats for bringing about an amendment to the Act, Herald has in its possession documents showing how a highly placed government officer gave a clean chit to an illegal construction in 2005 by by-passing the village panchayat. Today the construction stands tall (see photo) abutting a major district road at Tumbabhatt, Macasana, Salcete, and the efforts of the village panchayat to stop it have all borne no fruit. On April 5, 2005, then Deputy Director of Panchayats (South) Sandhya Kamat in a show-cause notice had ruled that the said construction was not illegal. Surprisingly, the same day, a little earlier, in the first show cause notice she branded the construction as illegal. Why the deputy director had a change of mind is not known. It was later learnt that Kamat had realised the property in which the construction was coming up was sold by her and her husband. As a result she was compelled to change the show-cause notice. This paper has in its possession the copy of the sale deed on which figures the name of the deputy director and her husband. The construction has come up in spite of the Town and Country Planning Department, Margao, directing stoppage of work at the site. The PWD which earlier issued a no objection certificate to the construction from the structural point of view later withdrew the same on learning of the illegality. Earlier the panchayat had moved for demolition of the construction, but got no cooperation from the police. The police told the panchayat to get a letter from the Block Development Officer. The sarpanch thus became a hapless victim running from one government office to another to get the illegal construction removed. In spite of the constructions illegality, it continued and today stands tall. http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=30766&cid=26
