Goa: Owner of 90-year-old heritage restaurant Souza Lobo at Calangute, threatened to vacate premises

CALANGUTE: The owners of the 90-year-old iconic, heritage restaurant Souza Lobo on the Calangute beach have been allegedly threatened several times to vacate the premises and sell the property to a non-Goan entity.

According to Joana Jude Souza Lobo who spoke to a local media outlet, her family is being constantly threatened to vacate the premises, failing which the restaurant or parts and portions of it will be demolished and pulled down using various arms of the enforcement agencies like the GCZMA (Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority), etc.

According to sources, the GCZMA has not taken any action against another blatantly illegal construction (next to Souza Lobo) on the Calangute beach, constructed by a Delhi-based businessman Rajiv Arora, while the GCZMA is going hammer and tongs to uproot a 90-year-old property.

Several complaints have been filed against the illegal construction by Rajiv Arora, but no action has been taken. The GCZMA has claimed that they have not received any complaint against the Arora-owned structure but this reporter has accessed at least two letters sent by Lobo himself to the GCZMA.

On Wednesday morning, GCZMA authorities landed up on the property, without the requisite documents to carry out a demolition.

Jude Souza Lobo, the owner of the property alleged that someone in the department, or Ministry or government has taken a huge sum of money to harass them. “We are being forced to sell the property. They want us to vacate the premises. Someone in the government has his eyes on this property and is doing his best to make us leave and sell the place. We provide employment to more than 50 people and most if not all of our staff are Goans.”

In spite of this, the GCZMA while overlooking other illegalities in the state are after our property with an unheard of vengeance, Lobo said.

According to a Herald report, the GCZMA claims that a part of the Souza Lobo Restaurant at Calangute is illegal and it (GCZMA) visited the restaurant to demolish a part of the it citing illegal construction within the NDZ or No Development Zone.

However the restaurant owner Lobo claims that the GCZMA arrived at the restaurant without any demolition order. Lobo alleged that they’re constantly harassed by authorities, because someone in the government wants to buy the property and is forcing them to sell by using agencies like the GCZMA.

According to a report in The Goan, the district administration which reached the site at 11 am on Wednesday could not demolish “illegal construction” allegedly part of the Souza Lobo restaurant, even as the owner Jude Lobo alleged that the officials of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) were out to harass him.

The administration including the executive magistrate of Bardez Taluka along with demolition machinery reached the venue at around 11 am, but had to return empty handed after the owner challenged them over the process and methods.

According to Lobo, the GCZMA officials claimed that they have done a re-survey of the property and later issued a show-cause notice to him, the report in The Goan stated.

“But in the show-cause notice, they did not send us the inspection report and the plan and then directly passed an order on October 21. The order is not served to me and today, they came directly to execute the order,” Lobo was quoted by The Goan as saying.

Lobo further claimed that he was in correspondence with the GCZMA on the matter and a personal hearing in the matter was scheduled on Thursday (October 27), but surprisingly the district administration came to demolish the structure, even before he could be heard in person.

“They have not furnished the documents and are yet to hear me in the matter. How can they come to demolish when the process is on,” Lobo asked?

He said the GCZMA has asked them to demolish certain parts of the structure citing a CRZ violation.

“The structure has been existing since 1932 when the CRZ rules were not in force,” Lobo claimed and alleged that the GCZMA officials were harassing him and his family under political pressure.

It may be recalled the district administration had unsuccessfully attempted a similar exercise last month.

On September 13, the administration had descended at the site with men and machinery and a police force but had to abandon plans to demolish the illegal structure, as the authorities could not identify the location of the structure that was supposed to be demolished.

(with inputs from Herald and The Goan)