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Velsao villagers shell-shocked over sarpanch’s demolition statement
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Meet to chalk out strategy
CORTALIM, JAN 3
Shaken by the announcement made by Velsao-Pale Sarpanch Olga D’Souza
that around 70 structures along the coast would be demolished on Monday,
about 500 shell-shocked residents assembled in the village to chalk out
a strategy to deal with the situation.
One of the residents Maria Sequeira called up Herald and informed that
the residents were mentally disturbed after the news spread of the
proposed demolition.
She further said that the affected residents were extremely dicey as to
what future held in store for them and also accused the sarpanch of not
explaining the exact situation to the residents.
Sequeira wondered as to how the structures which were shown in the 2006
survey conducted by the panchayat to be prevalent before February 1991,
were fixed for demolitions and that too without issuing final notices to
the affected residents.
Castigating the sarpanch for her high-handedness, Agnelo Rodrigues,
president of GRE which represents the interest of the traditional
fishermen accused the sarpanch of not revealing the exact situation to
the residents.
“In February last year, the sarpanch sent notices stating that the area
of the structures that would be demolished without identifying the exact
location. One of my structures which, was used to store fishing nets and
which is in existence for over 50 years was also served notice,”
Rodrigues told Herald and wondered the modus operandi adopted in
identifying the structure.
He claimed that a reconstructed bungalow of a local lady panch, which
came up about six years within 100 metres of CRZ and still incomplete,
was surprisingly left out from the list of CRZ violators and wondered
whether the affluent class were exempted from the CRZ guidelines.
However, interestingly the sarpanch when contacted said that she was not
aware whether any structures were fixed for demolition and disconnected
the call.
Admitting that the structures were fixed for demolition, an official
from the Revenue Department speaking on condition of anonymity said that
they had received instructions for the demolition.
However, it is learnt that there are some high level political moves
behind the scene to at least put off the demolition by a few days
thereby giving some breathing time to the affected residents to find
some way out from the present fluid situation.
http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=31866&cid=26
