PANAJI: he high court has sought replies from authorities over a public interest litigation filed by a former member of the task force for the Regional Plan 2021, challenging the conversion of land at Pomburpa from a private forest to a settlement area.
Architect Dean D’Cruz has challenged the conversion sanad, technical clearance, building licence, and the conversion. Though the Pomburpa land was notified as a private forest in the official gazette, the TCP department opined two months later that it was not part of a private forest and changed the zoning to a settlement area, D’Cruz stated.
The HC said that “prima facie” it finds substance in the submission and sought affidavits in reply, if any, within three weeks from TCP and forest departments, the Pomburpa panchayat, collector North, and Tiswadi mamlatdar. D’Cruz submitted that the land was depicted as a private forest in the official gazette in Sep 2022. But the forest department ignored its own notification, he said, and issued a contrary report to the additional collector III North Goa, clearing the property affected by private forest zoning, based on which a conversion sanad was issued.
The alleged illegality came to light in Aug, when the Pomburpa-Olaulim panchayat brought it to the notice of the chief conservator of forests that the report dated Nov 16, 2022, could not have been issued as the property was marked as a private forest in the official gazette. D’Cruz submitted that to date, the chief conservator of forests has not issued any clarification to the panchayat.
Based on the report of the chief conservator and subordinate officers, a conversion sanad was issued by the collector, and the TCP department released technical clearance for development. D’Cruz added that the TCP department issued the building licence on Nov 30, 2022, before the conversion sanad was issued on Dec 9, 2022.
Source Homevior.in
