MAPUSA: Residents of Oxel have demanded the immediate stop to all construction works and demolition and restoration of the land to its original state, since the septic tanks water is doing irreversible damage to the medicinal Oxel spring. The PHC Health Officer of the Primary Health Centre, Siolim said springs are not in their jurisdiction, while the TCP dept stayed away.
219 Oxel residents complained about pollution of the spring by a multi-dwelling project where they alleged the builder did not inform the TCP that the project was near the Spring.
Concerned over the contamination and irreversible damage caused by the multi-dwelling project's septic tanks being built in close proximity to the Oxel Spring, the Health Officer of the Primary Health Centre, Siolim along with the Oxel Panchayat conducted a joint inspection on Saturday, following a complaint filed by Oxel residents.
The Oxel Residents have been demanding an immediate stop to all construction works and demolition and restoration of the land to its original state as this alleged illegal project falls within the riparian flow of the spring water and its catchment area. Among others, the locals have made several written representations to the Oxel Panchayat, Water Resources Department, PWD, Deputy Town Planner, TCP, Mapusa, Chief Town.Planner, TCP, Panjim, but to no avail.
Earlier, the Sarpanch of Oxel Panchayat had openly declared at the Save Oxel Spring protest meet that she would issue work stop order and withdraw all permissions to the multi-dwelling project close to Oxel Heritage Spring and even conducted an inspection that proved road width was around 4 meters as against the mandatory minimum 6 meters, later only to backout on her commitment to save the heritage spring on some pretext or the other.