'Misguided' by lawyers, say illegal room owners (ToI)

'Misguided' by lawyers, say illegal room owners

TNN | Jul 5, 2014, 10.50 AM IST
PANAJI: Slum dwellers including migrants who built one-room tenements on private forest land in Maina, Socorro, blamed their lawyers on Friday for misguiding them and allowing them to think that they could get away with it.

With the Socorro panchayat dragging its feet in taking action against the illegal structures on private forest land, tension remained at a high on Friday after locals confronted the persons who had built the one-room ?pucca' houses. Locals also asked Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte to send a police team to the site as they feared a law-and-order situation could break out.

Porvorim police rushed to the site and upon questioning the violators, they admitted that they had built their structures without any government or panchayat permissions and were misled by their advocates that they could build on private forest land after buying the land.

"We bought this land. Our advocates said we would have no problem building our rooms here. We want our money back," one of the slum dwellers told the police. Police asked the slum dwellers if they had documents or permissions for building the structures, which they failed to produce. A man standing nearby and watching the scene told TOI that he was speaking in favour of the slum dwellers. He declined to identify himself and claimed that the issue pertaining to private forests was being heard in court and till then, structures could be erected on the land.

Following TOI's report on Thursday, government departments including forest officials visited the site at Maina, Socorro. Deputy conservator of forests Milind Karkhanis said that survey no 291, where the slums had been erected, was a private forest area.

While government departments concerned have visited the site, locals said they were still awaiting action by the Socorro panchayat to demolish the illegal structures.
imesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Misguided-by-lawyers-say-illegal-room-owners/articleshow/37823760.cms