Cuncolim MLA’s wife booked for encroaching on government land

MARGAO: Quepem police on Friday booked an offence against Seema Dias, wife of Cuncolim MLA, Clafacio Dias, on charges of encroaching on government property at Mullem, Salcete, by establishing and running a stone crushing unit on land belonging to the water resources department (WRD).
Acting on a complaint lodged by the executive engineer, works division XII, Gogol, Margao, Quepem police charged Dias under Sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property) and 447 (criminal trespass) of the Indian Penal Code.
“The said stone crushing unit has been established very close to the irrigation canal and water which is required for the purpose of irrigation is being illegally drawn and used for the stone crushing units,” the complaint states.
The complaint points out that the land admeasuring 8,675 sqm in Mullem village was acquired by the WRD in 1984 for the construction of part of a distributary of Selaulim irrigation project.
The Goa State Pollution Control Board had recently conducted an inspection of the crushing unit. Subsequently, former Paroda sarpanch Gabriel Fernandes had threatened to file contempt proceedings against the board before the National Green Tribunal for failing to take action against the “illegal” crusher.
He had alleged that the crusher operated without licence from 2008 to 2015 and that Dias evaded paying income tax and commercial tax on the business of around Rs 8.91 crore which he conducted during that period.
Following Fernandes’s allegations, Clafacio had refuted the charges by pointing out that the matter was subjudice st present.