PANAJI: The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has ordered the demolition of multiple illegal constructions, including a swimming pool, eight structures, two sheds, and a compound wall, constructed illegally in the no-development zone of CRZ in Anjuna.
The GCZMA noted that the ground taken by the violator is incorrect, as the structure is on a hill and is not affected by CRZ norms.
The GCZMA ruled that “any area which is within 0-200m or 200-500m of CRZ, whether it is plain land, slopy land, cliff, or hillock, is covered within the CRZ norms”.
The authority has asked the violator to demolish all the illegal structures as pointed out by the inquiry committee and to restore the land to its original state. Complainant activist Kashinath Shetye had told the GCZMA that the structures were being used as a hotel by the violator.
The GCZMA also noted that the violator tried to seek post-facto approvals for the structures after the earlier orders to demolish the structures were issued.
“Secondly, the regulations would not contemplate granting any post-facto approvals, and the attempt made by the respondent for consideration of the application dated Jan 27, 2021, is much after issuing the directions to demolish.
There is not much merit in the submission made by the respondent, which will warrant withdrawal of the decisions taken by this authority to demolish the structure,” the GCZMA said.
The complainant had said that the violator is dilly-dallying in demolishing the illegal structures on one pretext or another to drag the litigation since 2017. The GCZMA also noted that the violator ‘has resorted to the entire exercise to frustrate and delay the execution of the decision passed by the authority’.
Shetye said that the structures were named ‘casa’ to mean ‘house’ in Portuguese by the violator, but illegally converted the house into a hotel without taking any prior approvals for commercialising the small houses into hotels.
The violator had said during the GCZMA hearings that the inquiry committee had failed to take into account the topography of the land where the structures are located on “a hill and the structures located on the hill are not influenced by tidal action/sand dunes”. “The structures do not adversely affect the ecology of the locality,” stated the violator. The argument was rejected by the GCZMA.
