MARGAO: In the backdrop of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) rejecting applications for new fish-meal plants at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate, activists and residents questioned why the IDC and government had not initiated action against the existing fish-meal plants.
IDC Managing Director S V Naik had rejected applications for a new fish meal plant on the grounds that the Cuncolim Municipal Council (CMC) had opposed the setting-up of new fish-meal or fish-processing plants at the estate. Furthermore, Cuncolim MLA Rajan Naik had also issued a notice to the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) directing it not to give any NOCs to set up “polluting units like fish-meal plants.”
Activists recalled that Environment Minister Alina Saldanha, during a visit of the fish-meal plants, gave a presentation on how they should set up an effluent-treatment plant to take care of the waste and stop the foul odour that was plaguing the city. GSPCB had also issued notices to the fish-meal plants over the same.
Activists Rony Dias and Oscar Martins also pointed out that permissions for the fish-meal plants were given under the BJP government’s regime, and that if the government was now refusing to give permission for new plants on the grounds that it was a polluting unit, it should immediately tackle the existing pollution issues at the estate.
