Goa: Calangute local runs from pillar to post to save building but none willing to listen

A local, Anthony Lopes, has been knocking every government department door with his back to the wall but none is ready to offer even a window of hope, even as his compound wall has collapsed and there is visible threat to his residential building due to irresponsible excavation being carried out in the adjacent plot at Cobravaddo, Calangute.

The lackadaisical approach of authorities is apparently because the person who is carrying out the excavation work is an influential hotelier who is coming up with another hotel project on the land.

The issue is a deep excavation work that is being carried out in Survey no 214/7A at Cobravaddo, Calangute, endangering a residential building which is located close to the site. In fact, part of the compound wall has collapsed due to the ongoing excavation work.

For the last six months, Lopes, the owner of ground plus two residential building has made a number of calls and petitions to various authorities from collector to the deputy collector and local panchayat to the local police, but has failed to get any concrete response from any.

“The excavation is done in a haphazard manner and has endangered my residential building. My compound wall has collapsed along with two electricity poles,” Lopes told The Goan.

He said he has no issue with the construction per se, but the manner in which the excavation work was being carried out was frightening.

The aggrieved resident has made at least three complaints to the deputy collector, Bardez since August last year. But besides official correspondence directing the mamlatdar to take necessary action in the matter, there was no action forthcoming.

Lopes also complained to the Calangute Police against the excavation work when his compound wall collapsed.

“The police are taking the alibi that it is civil matter to wash their hands off. But when my compound wall has collapsed, isn’t it a law and order problem?” he asked.

He wrote to the local panchayat as recently as on January 27 asking it to revoke the permission granted to the hotelier and direct him (hotelier) to restore the damages scientifically by building a planned embankment to safeguard his residential building.

Calangute Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira informed that the previous panchayat had issued the licence to the hotelier who then started excavation of the property.

“We are not aware what the real problem is. There are apparently some boundary issues…We have called for an inspection of the site along with the Town and Country Planning department officials,” Sequeira said.