IOC outlet razed as drive continues

The petrol bunk staff paved way for the demolition by removing six petrol measurement units. The petrol bunk had four tanks with 40,000 litres of fuel which had to be emptied.
The Service Centre owned by Dulsine D’Souza and Convete D’Souza was built near KPT 30 years back and has been functioning ever since its establishment in the illegally encroached land belonging to the Revenue Department. The demolition work of the Service Centre set up in an area of about 42.5 cents was supervised by Assistant Commissioner Prabhulinga Kavalikatti.

Speaking to media persons, Kavalikatti said, 10 cents land adjacent to the Service Centre was given on lease to one Dulsine D’Souza 30 years ago under a special scheme for the unemployed women. The lessee has violated the rule by encroaching 42 cents of land located next to the 10 cents land given to them on lease and has built Service Centre which is again the infringement of the law, he informed.

The land issue was in the court since 20 years and the High Court had rejected the plea of the D’Souza family. Finally with the District Court issuing an order on March 30 to evict the land, the district administration took up the task of demolishing the Centre.

The Assistant Commissioner informed that the 10 cents area given on lease to Dulsine D’Souza will be left untouched and the lease can be renewed again. The lessee, who was paying the rent of Rs 3,000 to the Revenue Department till October 2004, had stopped paying the rent as the litigation was going on in the High Court. However, the lessee received a notice dated January 27, 2011, from the district administration asking to pay a total rent of Rs 12,49,320.

The Assistant Commissioner in the course of eviction said, the exit and entry space for the 10 cents land will be provided to the lessee. Lamenting over the demolition, the petrol bunk proprietor Convete D’Souza said the district administration should have given them a time frame of one week to vacate the land. They have demolished our petrol bunk without a prior notice, he said.