Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Numerous establishments, including those owned by well-known politicians and local businessmen, were significantly impacted by the High Court of Bombay at Goa’s order to seal nearly 175 illegal structures operating along the Anjuna coast.
Numerous well-known hotels and well-liked clubs along the coast are among those impacted; they were forced to close after their properties were sealed.
The well-known bar and restaurant “Pisco By The Sea,” which is owned by the coastal MLAs Michael and Delilah Lobo, is one example of such a business.
Savio Patrick Almeida, a former sarpanch of Anjuna, also suffered consequences after authorities sealed his two businesses, Titlie and Fusion Bar & Resto.
Likewise, “Alcoves,” a small Vagator property owned by Nicole Marques, a Verla-Canca panch member, was closed down while the sealing procedure was in progress.
Among those sealed were the businesses of former Anjuna sarpanchas Sandeep Chimulkar (owner of “U V Bar”) and Ramesh Govekar (owner of “Just to be”). Furthermore, the directive also applied to a number of units at the well-known five-star Vagator resort, ‘W Resort’.
But after giving the court the required operating permissions, some of the resort’s five-star accommodations were later de-sealed.
The Court observed that of the 175 structures, 45 structures had some sort of clearances from GCZMA and of these, 40 structures had no permissions under Section 66 of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act. Similarly about 130 of these 175 structures had neither any clearance from GCZMA nor any permissions under the Goa Panchayat Raj Act.
Stating these permissions are mandatory, the said that most of the structures do not have trade licences. Therefore no parties will use these unauthorised constructions for any commercial activities based only on trade licences, which village panchayat routinely issues to even grossly unauthorised constructions.
