Panaji, within a month-and-a-half of getting a new council for its civic body, which promised to earnestly undertake development, is now facing threat to its tree cover from none other than the councillors and ex-councillors. Furthermore, efforts are on to take over the land housing city animal shelter, for its commercial value. CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues is under intense pressure as the city Mayor and some councillors have taken the authority in their hand, and are getting works done by bypassing him. Seemingly helpless at the appalling behaviour of the public representatives, the CCP Commissioner is trying to put the things in order
PANAJI: The commercial value of the land at St Inez used for an animal shelter by the Panjim Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) has attracted land sharks, which in turn has led to illegal sealing of the entrance to this premises, earlier this week.
Although the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), which assists in running this animal shelter has not given its consent to make any changes to the shelter, many of the former councillors of the Corporation are taking keen interest in the same. Some of these councillors were even present at the site, when workers arrived with gas cutters and welding material on May 2, to remove the iron gate of the animal shelter and seal the entrance with laterite stones as well as cement.
The workers further cut down a number of trees standing at the animal facility. However, the personal intervention of the CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues prevented two large trees at this site from being felled.
Angela Kazi of PAWS told this daily that the workers, who arrived at the St Inez animal shelter claimed to have permission of the Mayor Surendra Furtado. She also informed that the entire operation was bulldozed, without showing any concern for the opposition from her.
Kazi, who is also the member secretary of the local body of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which is chaired by the North Goa Collector, further said that the kennels at the animal shelter are presently housing a number of high-breed dogs such as Labradors, Dobermans and so on, besides poodles, which have been left behind by their vacationing owners, and their safety is of great concern to her as the entrance to the animal shelter is sealed.
“Furthermore, the only entry to the animal shelter that is available now is via a road leading to the dry waste sorting centre, which in turn is posing lot of inconvenience to visitors to the shelter,” Kazi maintained, adding that the owners of the animals, particularly dogs, who used to visit the animal shelter for availing minor medical treatment to their pets, are now facing trouble.
Informing that the ‘recent job’ carried out at the animal shelter, which is the property of the Corporation, is illegal, the CCP Commissioner, when contacted, said that the animal activists are contemplating filing notice against the city Mayor. “The particular work seems to have been pre-planned as the workers had come fully prepared with all necessary equipments, besides well-aligning laterite stones,” he observed, stating that he is being pressurised by many councillors as well as ex-councillors to overlook the activities at the animal shelter.