The Goa State Pollution Control Board, (GSPCB) like the National Green Tribunal, has quite evidently managed to keep a check on coal handling majors like the South West Port limited (SWPL). After revoking the consent to operate granted to South West Port Limited, for handling coal, in what GSPCB stated, was in excess of permissible limits, the GSPCB stymied another attempt by the coal handler to get a fresh consent to operate.
The significance of the actions of the Goa Pollution Control Board needs to be underlined. At a time when the Centre as well as the MPT is going all out to ensure that there is no hindrance to coal transportation, linking it to MPT’s survival, the GSPCB has played its part in being a crucial watchdog in not allowing SWPL to have a free run, without pollution concerns taken care of.
The Goa government, following protests, had made the adherence to pollution control norms and standards, as a precursor to handling of coal at the port. Coal at MPT was being handled by Adani Murmugao Port Terminal Pvt Ltd and South West Port Ltd.
Union Shipping, Ports and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, on an SOS mission to Goa on March 20 to handle the impact of the cancellation of mining leases, said at a meeting in the port town that “there are some people who are against everything. We need to think what will happen if the economy comes to a standstill. We should have an integrated approach to development and environment.” He then said that the operations at the Mormugao Port Trust would have to come to an end if the port got no business.
What the Goa State Pollution Control Board has done is simply this. Shown the rulebook on pollution to these coal handlers, and simply, but firmly, telling them that pollution norms cannot be violated and then a case made for coal operations to start. It stated that SWPL did not have valid Environment Clearance.
SWPL in its application for fresh consent maintained that the EC did not specify any cargo limits for the terminal. A report in a national newspaper stated that according to SWPL, in 2011-12, their cargo projections at berth 5A and 6A would be 13.88 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA), increasing gradually from 2.5 MMTPA at the start of the project in 2004. It maintained that it initially obtained from GSPCB consent to establish and consent to operate at 3 MMTPA coal handling in 2004, which was increased to 5 in 2005 after total mechanisation. In 2006, it said the renewal of consent allowed for 5.5 MMTPA coal/coke, 1 MMTPA limestone, and 1 MMPTA steel.
The pollution control board, and rightly so, has gone by quantum the handler was permitted to handle and the actual, amount which was handled, where excess has been found. And on an issue where the health of so many are involved, it’s much better to err on the side of caution than surrender to pressures from MPT which is clearly backing coal handlers for their own business interests.
To everyone concerned, let this be clear. The people of Vasco have been victims of pollution. And yet, all they ask is for coal handling without coal pollution. This was exactly the same refrain of people living in villages and small towns which fell on the route of mining transportation, where homes were buried in and people choked under, mining dust. They are, to rebut minister Gadkari, not “people who are against everything”. In fact they had not demanded the closure of mining or have demanded ban on coal transportation. They have only demanded these activities to be undertaken without harming their health and their lives. They are victims, not stumbling blocks in the path of development.
The central government and institutions like MPT must understand that Goa’s mining sector has given them profits which they could have, hitherto, only dreamt of. But whether it is mining or coal, the wheels of economy cannot crush the people who inhabit the areas of their businesses. And the serious economic crisis that MPT faces has not been a result of people’s opposition, but due to very tangible and justifiable reasons which has resulted in a pause in mining to allow the environment to heal. The same principle applies to coal. And the Goa Pollution board should be commended for doing an honest job of not allowing consent to operate to SWPL.
