Goa Governor Mridula Sinha has asked the state chief secretary to take appropriate action on a complaint alleging illegalities in the construction of power minister Pandurang Madkaikar's bungalow in Old Goa.
Social activist Aires Rodrigues had last month filed a police complaint against the minister's new private residence in the North Goa district.
He had also petitioned the governor seeking appropriate action against the construction of the structure, which, he claimed, was just about 300 metres of the protected monument of Basilica of Bom Jesus at Old Goa near here.
The monument houses the relics of St Francis Xavier, a patron saint of the coastal state.
In a note issued on April 26, Sinha's secretary Rupesh Kumar Thakur asked Goa Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma to take "action deemed appropriate" in connection with the complaint filed by Rodrigues.
When contacted, Sharma said he has received the letter but he would be able to comment only after going through it.
The activist, in a letter written on April 9 to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Goa Circle, a copy of which was also sent to the governor and the prime minister, had demanded immediate action while alleging that there were illegalities in the construction of the bungalow.
The ASI, in its reply to Rodrigues on April 10, told him that it does not have the magisterial powers either for the removal of encroachment or for the demolition of illegal structures, the activist told PTI.
The ASI had then asked him"to approach local authorities for further action in the matter.
Rodrigues said the ASI also told him that in a letter dated November 3, 2015, it had asked the Old Goa police to register an FIR against Madkaikar over the unauthorised compound wall of his bungalow.
Madkaikar did not comment on the matter.
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