TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The three judge bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Delhi, headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar, allowed appellants Saligao Civic and Consumer Cell and the Goa Foundation to amend the appeal memo and file additional grounds, if required, against the issue of a new environment clearance in the Saligao solid waste management site case.
The appellants will file the amendments in a week. The NGT has fixed the matter for final disposal on April 20 or 21.
At Thursday’s hearing, the State government pulled out three new affidavits together with a copy of the final National Environmental Engineering Research Institute’s Environment Impact Assessment report, which they said, had resulted in a new environment clearance for the project dated March 3, 2015.
The government argued that the plot acquired for the solid waste site was now declared an industrial area and therefore did not need an environment clearance. The NGT found this unacceptable since the environmental impact would have to be evaluated.
Since the original appeal files from NGT Pune had not yet reached NGT Delhi, the Tribunal did not pass any stay order, as pressed for by the appellants.
