PANJIM: As many as 523 small and micro industrial units, including 48 spas, salons and massage parlours, have shut operations after being pulled up by the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) under the Water and Air pollution Act. The move comes in view of directions from the National Green Tribunal issued in May 2013.
More than half of the units closed down are in the mining belt and include hotels, eateries, electronic manufacturing units, flour mills, repair shops, canning companies, distilleries, packaging and beverage, fish meal, bakeries, metal, wood, cement units etc.
“The Board while granting consent to operate under the Water and Air Act stipulates specific conditions for compliance, so as to control the level of pollution. The failure to do so, forces the Board to suspend or close the units,” GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said.
In the past year, the Board has issued 1045 show cause notices and directions to units operating without consent to operate and also violating consent conditions. “The Board issued directions for closure and suspension of 523 units which have not complied with the conditions stipulated in the consent order and operating without obtaining consent to operate,” Noronha said.
In 2014 alone, the Board had issued show cause notices to around 170 spas and salons for operating without the consent. Board had made No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the Health department and local bodies compulsory for obtaining consent to operate. “We have suspended or closed down operation of nearly 48 spas, salons and massage parlours,” he said.
NGT in its May 8, 2013 order had directed pollution control boards across the country to close down all units, including hotels, shacks, eateries, etc functioning without the consent.
GSPCB, the regulatory body for granting consent to operate under Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981has granted nearly 1538 fresh consents to operate to various industrial units and 211 consents to establish between April 2014 and March 2015.
These consents were also granted under medical Waste (management and handling) Rules 1998 and Hazardous Waste (management and handling) Rules 2000. This was revealed in GSPCB’s Annual Report 2014-15, released on Friday.
