Hill cutting at Dharbandora: Ex-official’s son faces plaint

Ponda: Following a govt order putting the onus on talathis of the area concerned to arrest illegal hill-cuttings across Goa, the Dharbandora talathi has filed a complaint against Sameer Vachasundar, the son of former Class-1 officer Anand Vachasundar from Porvorim.

Sameer, a director of Swanand Consultant, has been booked in connection with the alleged hill cutting at Pratap Nagar.

Meanwhile, Manohar Gaonkar from Dhavkond-Dharbandora has been booked in connection with the landfilling found at Dhulay.

There was a rumour that a portion of the hill at Dhulay will be illegally cleared by cutting down trees to develop the land.

On receiving information, forest officials raided the site and found that the trees were uprooted due to rain and gusty winds.

Although they did not find any hill cutting at Dhulay, they did discover landfilling.

A flying squad attached to the South Goa Collectorate along with Dharbandora deputy collector raided two hill-cutting sites in Dharbandora on Tuesday.

During the raids, they found that 13 houses had been constructed over some plots developed by cutting hills at Betul-Pratap Nagar.

Dharbandora deputy collector Nilesh Dhaigodkar said that the talathi Dasharath Gawas has filed the complaint against Sameer Vachasundar and Manohar Gaonkar and now proceedings will start against both of them.