Land-filling in Tillari command area: TCP dept gets HC notice

Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa on Wednesday called for responses from govt authorities in a PIL related to the illegal filling of low-lying paddy fields in the Tillari Irrigation Project command area at Calangute.The PIL challenges the validity of the Goa Town and Country Planning (Composition of Offences) Rules, 2022, and the compounding order passed by the department in Feb this year, where the department compounded the illegal land-filling.The petitioner, Vinal Diulkar, submitted to the high court that despite the illegal land-filling, the TCP board proceeded to compound the illegality without conducting a site inspection and without following procedure, which is evidence that compounding rules are being misused.Diulkar, who resides just one kilometre away from the illegal construction, submitted to the high court that the paddy fields belong to the comunidade of Calangute and its tenants, and that the affected area falls under the command area that is protected under the Goa Command Area Development Act, 1997, and Rules, 1999.The Feb compounding order was issued despite land-filling occurring to a depth of over 1.5m, three times the permissible limit of 50cm under Section 17A provisions, he submitted.Diulkar submitted that there was no finding in the compounding order regarding the depth of land-filling at the site, which would impact deciding the severity of the offence sought to be compounded.