The development comes as inquiries carried out by the villagers revealed that neither the starred resort has removed the two pipes nor the South Goa District Collector has moved in to get the pipes removed as per the GSPCB directions.
Noronha told Herald that the GSPCB had issued a specific order dated January 30, to the District Collector to remove the two pipes immediately and file a compliance report with the Board. “If the District Collector has not complied with the directions, then I will personal take up the matter with the State administration and get the pipes removed,’ Norohna said.
A villager Roosevelt Rodrigues told the media that though the GSPCB had being issuing orders to Hotel Leela Palace to remove the pipes, the GSPCB orders have not changed the ground reality. “We have only heard the GSPCB issuing the orders to the resort and to the District Collector, South, but the two pipes remain in the same place,” Roosevelt said.
A hotel executive Prasad Serity, however, maintained that the pipeline has been in existence for years now and is utilised by the hotel for the discharge of storm water and lagoon water during the rains.
The GSPCB Chairman, however, said that the hotel resort had laid the pipeline without obtaining the prior permission of the Pollution Control Board.
