Moodbidri market, HC notice to governments

Moodbidri market, HC notice to governments

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, July 19, 2017: Reports indicate that the Karnataka High Court on July 18, Tuesday issued notices to the state and the Union government agencies over a market proposed near a protected monument at Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada district.

The Town Municipal Council has proposed to replace the market situated in a prohibited area around ’Chowtra Aramane’, a protected monument, in Moodabidri.

Jaison Marshall Suares of Puchmogaru village has approached the court opposing the project.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar which heard the petition, issued notices to Archaeological Survey of India, Moodbidri Town Municipal Council as well as the secretaries of Revenue Department, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Culture and National Highway Authority of India.

The provisions of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010, do not allow any construction, including public projects, in the prohibited area near protected monuments. The permission for construction or reconstruction activities in such areas are governed by heritage bylaws.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the ‘Chowtra Aramane’ was a protected monument and it was notified under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act. The existing market building in Moodbidri town was within 200 metres from the boundary limits of the protected monument. But no bylaw has been framed for ‘Chowtra Aramane’. Till the bylaws are framed, construction work should not be allowed in the regulated area, he argued.

The petitioner also said that the Town Municipal Council invited tender for building a new market hastily. “The proposed new market is illegal and unauthorised. If the construction is undertaken, it would certainly damage the protected monument,” the petitioner deposed.