PANAJI: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has wasted an appeal submitted by two activists who accused that the construction of the apartment complex in Goa Velha has been carried out in the Crz development zone.
While activists accused the expert committee reports formed based on the wrong order of NGT and Malafide, the court refused to accept this submission.
Tribunal said that the findings of the Expert Committee must be put into a higher and valued base as documentary evidence ‘.
“This is a legal position that is well-resolved, the report / opinion of the expert committee is subject to a higher base and of course it needs to be appreciated as other documentary evidence,” said Tribunal.
The appeal was submitted stating that construction in Velha’s cave was carried out by damaging salt pan and mangrove forest.
Activists requested construction to be destroyed and land to be returned to their original state.
Activists said that while the investigation committee, arranging court orders in 2014, stated that three construction violated laws, the same investigation committee submitted the second report in the same year where they contradicted their original findings.
But the court found that the investigation committee was found in the report both that GCZMA had given permission for construction by considering the width of the nearest river as the Crz line.
The committee raised this problem to be considered a crz line, the court noted.
The request committee found that the site plan has a different Crz line and the permits provided by GCZMA for construction have considered a different Crz line.
The committee noted that the Crz line was drawn in 2005 by GCZMA when giving permission and construction was carried out based on this permit.
Therefore, construction cannot be said to be in the Crz development zone.
The panel said that only the platforms were cemented and the dock in the Crz development zone that must be removed, which was finally destroyed.
The court noted that the next committee also did not find a violation.
The 2017 Committee also found that there was no mangrove disruption at the location.