Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: In court, the developer of the contentious housing project that will be built close to Oxel Spring has agreed to stop further building until the Water Resources Department (WRD) and Town and Country Planning (TCP) have inspected the site.
The two departments have been granted until November 14 to finish a joint site assessment in order to determine the project’s impact on the spring, according to the High Court of Bombay at Goa, where the case was heard on Friday.
The split bench of Justices MS Karnik and Valmiki Menezes further noted that the spring needed to be shielded from environmental harm and that building villas was a luxury rather than a necessity.
Suraj Chodankar and Avertino Miranda have filed a PIL writ suit, which was being heard by the court. Deep Shirodkar, an additional government advocate, requested time to submit affidavits on behalf of WRD and the TCP Department.
The TCP must provide in its affidavit the specifics of the technical experts and scientific research that were consulted to evaluate the project’s environmental impact before to obtaining the necessary permits. The project site is only 33 meters from Oxel Spring.
The Oxel Village Panchayat has promised the court that it will take action on the citizens’ representation to the panchayat after being urged to look into the subject more thoroughly. The next hearing on the case is scheduled for November 14.
