TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: Acting on the long-pending demand of residents, South Goa Collector N D Agarwal has ordered the dismantling of machinery and storage tanks of a controversial alcohol manufacturing unit, which has been defunct for over a decade at Canacona Industrial Estate in Shristhal-Canacona.
According to local panch Prashant Dessai, Agarwal inspected the alcohol unit at the industrial estate and took cognizance of the danger it poses to human life.
“The collector ordered authorities to dismantle the tanks containing processed and under-process molasses, which people have feared is posing danger to their lives. The Collector also accorded permission for complete dismantling of the unit for disposing it as scrap material,” said Dessai.
It may be recalled that a decade ago, the manufacturing unit for alcohol and related products stopped its production and since then the unit has been lying defunct. Locals have claimed that the unit has been polluting the atmosphere with odour emanating from the processed raw materials.
“The collector, as head of the South Goa Disaster Management Authority, inspected and issued orders to dismantle the tanks, other machinery and equipments and to shift the processed molasses from the site in a time-frame manner. The pollution board officials also carried out inspections of the site and the work is entrusted to a party from Mumbai,” informed panch Dessai.
“Dismantling and shifting of molasses is being done in a sustainable manner,” informed Dessai, when a group of residents led by NCP’s state-level secretary and local leader Sapnesh Dessai, were heard complaining that the company was interested to shift only valuable scrap from the site and not the waste, which poses a danger to lives.
“One of the tanks which was leaking and was about to collapse has been already dismantled and its contents are temporarily shifted to an underground tank of the huge plant. The other molasses will also be lifted soon,” assured Dessai.
However, Sapnesh Dessai voiced apprehension that the molasses from one of the dismantled tanks, now transferred to an open tank is already posing a health hazard, as mosquitoes have already began to infest the whole area.
“We will stop the transportation of the scrap material if the wastage (molasses) is not lifted simultaneously from the site,” Sapnesh told scribes.
