My birthplace Ribandar has and will always be ever so close to my heart. It is very distressing to learn of the manner in which a retired IAS officer Subhash Chandra is high-handedly acting in Ribandar in total breach of law. Subhash Chandra retired in September last year as Secretary of Goa Housing Board and was Secretary of Social Welfare besides Art and Culture.
By a sale deed executed on 28th February this year, Subhash Chandra bought a small house in Ribandar for two crores and ten lakhs. This was the official amount while the quantum of black component is not known. He also paid an amount of ten lakhs fifty thousand as stamp duty and a further six lakhs thirty thousand towards registration fees of that sale deed. Subhash Chandra managed to fast track and complete the Mutation process within a month. Now he has brazenly been violating all rules and regulations while even encroaching into the property of his neighbours. One such victim is a widow along whose house Subhash Chandra has blatantly erected a huge high wall thus blocking her windows and depriving her of natural sunlight and ventilation. A public pathway has also been encroached by the former IAS officer, which has all angered all the residents of the area. All these Ribandar illegalities by Subhash Chandra are unacceptable.
The Corporation of the City of Panaji and the North Goa Planning and Development Authority must act swiftly to immediately demolish everything illegally built and restore the place to its original state. It would be worthwhile for the Directorate of Enforcement to also probe the source of those crores Subhash Chandra shelled out to buy that Ribandar house and to later start converting it into a mansion on which work is ongoing. His role at the Goa Housing Board and Art & Culture may throw some light.
Subhash Chandra may be hoping that his political and bureaucratic contacts will enable him to sail him through, but does he need to be reminded of Thomas Fuller’s words ‘Be you never so high, the law is above you.’
