CALANGUTE: Mapusa PWD-WDXIII executive engineer Bramhanad Naik, on Tuesday, filed a complaint at the Calangute police station against Calangute sarpanch Anny Fernandes and deputy sarpanch Joseph Sequeira for digging the road at the Calangute Tinto using an earthmoving machinery without obtaining permission from the department.
Sources at the Calangute police station informed that Mapusa PWD-WDXIII executive engineer Bramhanad Naik has filed a complaint against the sarpanch of Calangute Anny Fernandes and deputy sarpanch Joseph Sequeira for damaging government property – demolishing Tinto Circle (traffic island) by using an earthmoving machinery without obtaining a permission, and as such a case has been registered under and Section 336, read with Section 34 and Section 3 of the PDPP Act. PSI Prajit Mandrekar is investigating the case.
The work of constructing a new circular traffic island by demolishing the old traffic island is being undertaken by the Calangute panchayat so that a high mast lighting could be installed there to illuminate the area.
On Tuesday morning, an earthmoving machinery was pressed into service to demolish the old circular traffic island.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo informed this daily that he received a phone call from a shopkeeper in the Tinto area informing him that a 4×5 metre circular traffic island would be constructed at Tinto after demolishing the old circular traffic island.
The shopkeepers in the area felt that buses taking a turn at the traffic island could prove dangerous, and their shops could be damaged, Lobo added.
He said that he then called up the PWD and enquired whether an NOC has been granted to to the village panchayat to carry out the work, adding the PWD informed that no NOC whatsoever has been issued to carry out the work.
Speaking further he said that the PWD has already started with Rs 5 crore work that includes hot-mix carpeting of the Calangute roads and construction of traffic islands at important junctions for the smooth flow of traffic.
The Bardez mamlatdar was then asked to stop the work being carried out by the panchayat at the Tinto, it is learnt.
In the afternoon, the mamlatdar of Bardez Dhasharath Gawas arrived at the site, and stopped the work being carried out by the Calangute panchayat, and instructed the PWD officials to file a complaint against the Calangute sarpanch and deputy sarpanch, Lobo informed.
When contacted, the Calangute sarpanch said that the village panchayat has planned Rs 8 lakh work of installing a high mast lighting and construction of a circular traffic island.
With the tourist season just round the corner and the government failing to illuminate the area, the panchayat thought of installing a high mast lighting, she added.