There is a limit to the absolute brazenness of the promoters of the alcohol factory, Vani Agro Farms Ltd, which initially got permissions for a beer unit, in Amdai in Sanguem. After getting the consent from the Goa State Pollution Control Board to produce extra neutral alcohol of 26.50 litres per month, it has now moved an application for a revised consent of 26.50 kilo litres to the Goa Pollution Control Board, whose conduct in issuing clearances to this anti-people and anti-environment, project, has been extremely dubious.
The Herald in its investigations has established beyond doubt the following:
a) The River Uguem and the ground water aquifers at Amdai are the primary source of agriculture which is totally dependent on these local water resources. Thus, livelihoods are linked to this. The water resources available locally are just enough for the needs of the present users. Once the beer factory comes up, two natural water ways from the Uguem river, which connect to the Vani Agro Farm will be cut.
b) The company has been only granted consent to establish but the company has allegedly commenced excavation works without any further permission. There is no Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environment Clearance (EC) which is mandatory for RED category projects. But in this case the Investment Promotion Board which has cleared Vani Agro’s factory, did not even have the mandate to clear a red category project.
c) The excavation works started by the company in preparation for the construction of their factory, has led to the possibility of the excavated material going into the fields or the run off going into the river. The GSPCB had said there was a “rare possibility of runoff”, but took no further action against Vani Agro and merely stated that the company was instructed to take precautionary measures.
The Goa Pollution Control Board cannot be an ostrich and pretend that these facts do not exist. Therefore, far from accepting another application to produce more alcohol, it should have immediately withdrawn the consent to establish granted to Vani Agro in the first place, instead of giving weak responses to Herald, when questioned stating “that their file is in process”. This is precisely what the two senior most officials of the GSPCB had to say in the absence of a full-fledged Chairman. The Chief Secretary who is holding charge has obviously done precious little and not given any thought to the serious questions which have been raised about the Vani Agro project in Amdai.
To start with, the Chief Secretary of Goa, who is holding the charge of the Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board, needs to know that the board he heads, gave the consent for production of extra neutral alcohol at 26.50 ltrs per month and impure spirit at 1.50 ltrs per month. However, daily quantity of industrial effluent is permissible up to 350 KLD (kilo litres per day) It is clear that a mere 26.50 litres per month will not produce industrial effluent of 350 kilo litres per day. This effectively means that the ultimate production of alcohol would be far in excess, if the effluent discharge will be 350 kilo litres per day. Vani Agro’s revised application confirms that this was always the plan, i.e get consent for a lower quantity and use that consent to upscale the requirement by amending the previous amount cleared.
The Chairman and members of the Pollution Control Board owe a serious explanation to the people of Goa. If the GSPCB has passed a resolution not to allow red category projects in the state, on what ground have they given consent to establish to the red category Vani Agro project?
While the Government needs to be in the dock and justify clearing this controversial project which will ruin the village of Amdai, the Goa Pollution Control Board is guilty being either a willing accomplice to this act, or a meek puppet on a string pulled by the government.
