On petition initiated by Jose Martins, Bombay High Court in Goa orders FIR to be registered against accused Estonio Fransisco De Almeida for Illegal Hill Cutting & to restore Hill back to its original state at cost of the accused.
By
Gaurav Bakshi
Actor & Founder HelpdesQ.in
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(The intent of this blog is to have a public discourse on corruption & to create awareness of citizens’ rights & provide citizens solutions thereby creating a more just system. The author encourages all citizens to highlight & publicly track issues to ensure elected representatives and government servants are held accountable and do not indulge in mis-governance & abuse of power.
Goa based legal-tech Startup HelpdesQ.in has helped save hundreds of crores in bribes for customers and is possibly the only entity in India to successfully offer & deliver 100% corruption free services for everything government. This is something that most believe doesn’t exist and often can’t even imagine vaguely possible.)
This article contains: Blatant Hill Cutting | What should have happened | What actually happened | Local Hero Jose Martins | Almeida’s boat is sinking | What can you do
The issue was a simple one: Blatant Hill Cutting in violation of all regulations & laws
- Estonio Fransisco De Almeida was caught red handed illegally hill cutting at Survey No 276/6 Village Taleigao, Tiswadi Goa when the brave Cecille Rodrigues called the flying squad in Jan 2022 and highlighted the issue publicly.
- The Flying squad confiscated the machinery being used towards Hill Cutting and the Office of Collector North issued Stop Work Order based on the Flying Squads complaint. Click here to read the Stop Work Order.
[Almeida has a history of assaulting women with a complaint dating as far back as 2014 in which a woman complained that he had slapped and punched her and pulled her hair in a public place. He was arrested for the offence. Click here to read HT article for full details. It doesn’t end there.
Estonio allegedly forged signatures and illegally sold Communidade/farming land to current Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate. A case against Estonio has been filed for the same by his own cousin alleging Form 1&14 has been forged and land sold fraudulently. That’s the same infamous Monserrate who attacked a police station in 2008 in Goa’s Capital city of Panaji, 50 meters from the Goa DGPs office (Click here to watch the attack video).]
What should have happened in a rule based Society
- Once the Flying Squad report was sent to NGPDA by the Dy Collector, NGPDA should have issued show cause notices.
- If satisfactory reply was not received, NGPDA should have requested Goa Police to file an FIR and initiated criminal proceedings against the Culprit and ensured restoration of hill at cost of the Culprit.
What actually happened
- NGPDA with then infamous & dubious Secretary Rajinder Pandita and the incapable Chairman Jennifer Monserrate (wife of Atanasio Monserrate) deliberately delayed any action, and instead, out of deep longing sent a love letter to the Panchayat asking for their loving opinion.
- The Taleigao Panchayat coyly fluttered their eye lids and nudged the NGPDA to not take any further action for lack of evidence. In case you didn’t read that right, I repeat – for LACK OF EVIDENCE!
[Of course we all know that a publicly visible Hill being cut barely 500 meters from the Village Panchayat Taleigao Office and about 300 meters from the Monserrates residence was clearly known to the Panchayat and the Monserrates and infact the rest of Goa. Elected ward members roam about like hawks to control their puny territory and know exactly all illegalities taking place. The ward members & Sarpanch of the Village Panchayat, the MLA and others chose to look away when compensated well enough by those indulging in illegalities.
What is crystal clear is that neither the elected representatives (Monserrates & the Taleigao Panchayat members in this case) nor the Goa State Government Administration (Dy Collector, NGPDA, TCP, BDO) either care about the Hills of Goa (and environment at large) nor enforce the law unless it is to their benefit or when forced to act when directed by the Honourable Courts.]
In comes local hero and much loved Jose Martins
- Having seen enough of this nonsense, Jose Martins took on the culprit and the state administration and initiated a High Court writ petition (via Tony Rodrigues).
- The High Court relied on the Stop Work Order by the Dy Collector, wrapped the knuckles (once again) of government bodies and directed an FIR be filed against Estonio Fransisco De Almeida and also orders restoration of the Hill at cost of Almeida. Click here to read High Court Order.
- Once it was apparent that the High Court order was going to go against it, NGPDA quickly shot off a letter just a few days prior to the High Court order. Click here to read the NGPDA letter requesting the Police to register an FIR.
- FIR filed based on High Court direction.
Jose Martins
Almeida’s boat is wobbly and sinking
- Almeida is furious that he is exposed.
- Out of desperation, this fellow has since filed complaints against Jose Martins and a laughable Rs 2 crore defamation case against Cecille Rodrigues. It’s another matter, nothing will come of his frivolous acts. Almeida knows it too but simply can’t digest this truth.
- It was unfortunate that even officials of the Directorate of Health Services, namely Richard Noronha were hand in glove and harassed Jose Martins by issuing a notice to seal his commercial establishment until the High Court intervened to negate such attempts and reprimanded Richard Noronha. Click here for details on all officials involved.
Is illegal Hill Cutting taking place in your area? Here’s what you can do
- Call the Flying Squad in your Taluka Dy Collectors office
- Reach out to local media & activists and expose the culprits.
- File a complaint with Dy Collector, PDA, TCP & Panchayat (along with Vigilance and PGPortal).
- File RTIs to keep track of progress on the case.
- If the Dy Collector/PDA/TCP/Village Panchayat don’t act, file complaints against these officials with their respective superiors & Vigilance.
- In case of continued inaction or delay by PDA/TCP/Panchayat, approach the courts.
Unless an awakened and intelligent citizenry takes matters into their own hands, total destruction of the beautiful and bountiful lands of Goa is inevitable. Air and water pollution and related consequences follow closely are visible by the day.
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