All illegal structures, including bars & restaurants, are being be demolished by the local municipality, but bureaucracy buys Hoble just a little more time.
Though the authorities may have spared Hoble’s River Lounge, the restaurant and bar run by BJP vice-president Anil Hoble, the respite may be temporary. Questioning the basis for issuing various licenses granted to Hoble, government agencies have begun the process to revoke them.
Based on an order passed by the National Green Tribunal directing that all illegal structures, including bars and restaurants, be demolished, the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) had issued a show-cause notice asking why trade licenses issued should not be cancelled. Since the show-cause notice returned un-served, CCP is considering the next option.
“If you see the NGT order, all structures were supposed to be demolished. If that is done then the issue of his trade licenses continuing doesn’t arise and we can state that the said licenses are being cancelled because the establishment has ceased to exist,” deputy commissioner Sudhir Kerkar said.
While executing the NGT order, deputy collector of Tiswadi Sabaji Shetye along with Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) officials had demolished only a small part of the structure, leaving the main illegal structures standing. Hoble’s restaurant and bar received a temporary reprieve as the NGT order had directed authorities to raze down the structures in survey no. 65/1-A.
Image: Herald Goa
“We followed the order. Regarding the remaining structures, the court has to decide and pass an order,” Shetye said. The tribunal’s western zone bench, comprising judicial member Justice V R Kingaonkar and expert member Ajay Deshpande had on May 29 ordered that all the structures, including bars and restaurants and allied structures, be demolished but had in the verdict mentioned only land survey number 65/1.
The reprieve is only temporary since GCZMA is required to file a compliance report before NGT and in that report it is likely to state that it did not demolish the remaining structures as they were not built in the land survey number mentioned. Sources said that the NGT bench is expected to correct its order and recommend the demolition of all the illegal structures.
Besides CCP, the excise department has also begun the process to cancel the two excise licenses granted to the contentious structure. The Food and Drugs Administration had also issued a show-cause notice to Hoble’s River Lounge asking why the food license issued to the bar and restaurant should not be cancelled.
