SHWETA KAMAT
PANJIM: Joining the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ concept, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) will not seek No Objection Certificates (NoC) from local bodies as a mandatory pre-condition for grant of Consent to Establish and Operate to projects that are approved in-principle by the Investment Promotion Board (IPB).
For this special consideration, project proponents will have to pay five times the actual fee for the consent.
The Board has decided to amend the existing Goa Water and Air Rules with specific reference to IPB, to exclude prior permission of panchayat, municipalities, city corporation, wherein the project activity has been granted in-principle approval by IPB.
“In order to promote Ease of Doing Business in Goa, with IPB-cases, the Board could examine and scrutinise the proposals from scientific and technical point of view (site feasibility) in terms of Air and Water Act. For such assessment, NoC from local authorities need not be a pre condition,” the minutes of the Board meeting held on September 4, state.
Until now, a NoC from the local authorities was mandatory before applying for the Consent to Operate under the Water and Air (prevention and control of pollution) Rules, which were enacted in 1988 and 1989, respectively, for strict implementation. This was one of the requirements for projects located outside notified industrial estates or zones.
Accordingly, the Board has also issued a circular in this regard. “Thus it is imperative that the Board, while granting Consent to Establish and Operate to the project activity, could consider a submission of in-principle approval granted by IPB accordingly,” the minutes state.
Board claims that it is assumed that while granting in-principle approval, the IPB goes through detailed scrutiny with specific references to project location, site characteristics, etc, before granting in-principle permissions, in addition to the investment criteria and job opportunities.
