The Mormugao Port Trust, one of the institutions which has been seen to be openly backing the expansion of coal infrastructure and supporting coal transporters tooth and nail, to the absolute detriment of Vasco and Goa’s environment, needs to be seriously accountable and acted against. When a port, under the ageis of the government deliberately ignores pollution concerns and directives to control pollution, it should be seen an abettor and colluder acting against state interests, which is exactly what MPT is doing. The action of filing a criminal complaint against them is just and must be expedited.
In the context of the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change recommending giving the environment clearance and CRZ clearance to the South West Port Limited for expansion of coal handling facilities, we need to question them how it could overlook the constant violations of the South West Port of directions issued by the GSPCB to reduce coal handling, in absolute connivance with and in the knowledge of the MPT.
The port’s business needs outweighed its moral duty to respect and be sensitive to the environmental and human concerns of a land in which it has been carrying out operations for long.
The figures of excess handling which we have reported are staggering. It is 16 million tonnes of excess coal handled in six years. In ten years coal handling at the port has gone up by ten times to a staggering 47.5 million tonnes handled from 2012-13 to November 2017.
And as GSPCB continued to give directions and show cause notices for excess coal handling, SWPL has claimed that the pollution level in Vasco is not “exceptionally different from other cities of the State.”
We wonder since when a project proponent, which has not yet got the Environmental Clearance, can defy the diktat of the state’s pollution control board, telling them what their views on pollution in cities in the state are. This defies not logic, but tells us the scant respect these gigantic companies have for statutory bodies. And this is not our observation. The action of the GSPCB to file a criminal complaint against MPT is evidence of whose side the port is on.
As we have reported in this edition, for the entire financial year of 2015, the coal handled was 9.929 million tonnes as against the permissible limit of 5.5 million tonnes.
In 2016-17 it handled 10.112 million tonnes of coal. In June-July 2017 the pollution board wrote to SWPL for reduction in coal handling facility by 25 percent and allowed the limit to 4.125 million tonnes. SWPL violated that too.
In the light of all this, the MOEF&CC should ask its EAC, on what basis did it recommend clearance of EC and CRZ. In fact the MoEF and CC should reject the EAC recommendations, not just on what has been mentioned so far but only on this ground. The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) had opined to MoEF&CC that the particulate source apportionment study of air quality in Vasco, through IIT Bombay was a must before considering the coal expansion project proposed by SWPL at MPT for environment clearance (EC). The MoEF&CC should not and cannot give clearances till this study is done.
If it does clear, then the ministry will face the same allegations of colluding with big infrastructure firms, which MPT is facing. This collusion is leading to more people suffering from pollution in Goa and that is something which cannot be “cleared” by the people of Goa.
