Team Goemkarponn
CALANGUTE: Following a High Court ruling, three unlawful buildings in Khobrawaddo, Calangute, were demolished on Wednesday in front of police, the village panchayat, the Bardez Mamlatdar, and the Block Development Officer (BDO).
The owner of property 209/5 in Calangute, which is located in the CRZ area, Egidio Braganza, claimed that the illegal structures were built in 2009 by intruding on his land in spite of his protests.
The aforementioned buildings were being used for commercial purposes but lacked an occupancy certificate, GCZMA NOC, or construction license. Despite his protests to the Calangute panchayat, nothing was done about them.
Braganza claimed that despite the Panchayat’s efforts to address the complaints and send out formal notices, nothing was done.
Surprisingly, the panchayat even provided these illegal buildings with water and electrical connections in addition to home numbers.
Braganza then went to the Directorate of Panchayats, and on March 9, 2022, the Deputy Director of Panchayats eventually issued a demolition order.
Braganza eventually went to the Bombay High Court in Goa, which issued an order ordering the panchayat authorities to demolish the structures and carry out its demolition order, since the Calangute panchayat and the Bardez BDO had been refusing to implement the demolition order for more than two years on various pretexts, citing fictitious reasons of incomplete documents.
In the last two weeks, Khobrawaddo has seen two significant demolitions. Earlier on October 25, a hotel in the CRZ area at Khobrawaddo had some unlawful buildings dismantled by the Bardez deputy collector’s demolition squad. It was also an old lawsuit.
