PANJIM: The Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) has asked the Goa State Pollution Board (GSPCB) to implement various recommendations to stop pollution caused by a carbon factory at Sao Jose de Areal.
Disposing of a complaint filed by Alcina Fernandes, president of Social Justice Forum, Sao Jose de Areal, the Commission has recommended that the GSPCB should install Ambient Air Monitoring Equipments at different locations identified by the complainant and carry out the monitoring at least over a period of one year and shall take into consideration the reports while issuing the permission to operate the unit.
The three-member Commission comprising Chairperson Justice U V Bakre and Members Judge Desmond D’Costa and Judge Pramod Kamat has asked the GSPCB Member Secretary to carry out regular inspection inside the factory and also within a radius of one-kilometre from the centre point of the factory and to give necessary directions to the factory to stop the pollution, if any.
Whenever the consent to operate the unit is given with conditions, the GSPCB should see to it that all those conditions are complied with within certain prescribed time limit and if not complied with, then it should consider whether to withdraw or suspend consent.
The Commission further said that the GSPCB should not give renewal of consent to operate the unit unless all the conditions mentioned in previous consent have been duly complied with. Also consent to operate the unit should not be given for more than for one year every time from April 1, 2024, when the present consent to operate expires.
“Under Section 18 (e) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, the Commission shall send a copy of the Inquiry Report together with its recommendations to the concerned government or authority and they shall, within a period of one month from the date of order or such further time as the Commission may allow, forward its comments on the report including the action taken or proposed to be taken, to the Commission. Also copy of the Inquiry Report will be sent to the GSPCB calling for their comments including the action taken or proposed to be taken within a period of one month or on or before April 18, 2022,” it stated.
