PANJIM: A new bench of the High Court of Bombay at Goa will hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking removal of the Sonsoddo municipal waste dump after the current division bench recused from hearing the matter. When the petition came up for hearing before Justices Mahesh Sonak and Nutan Sardesai on Wednesday, Sardesai recused from hearing the PIL stating “Not before me.”
Petitioners Goa Foundation and Citizens for Sonsoddo will have to place the matter afresh before the new division bench of Justices Mahesh Sonak and Prithviraj Chavan.
The development comes a week after the High Court had issued notices to Margao Municipal Council, Fomento Green, Waste Management Services, Goa State Pollution Control Board, Goa Waste Management Corporation and Directorate of Municipal Administration and had fixed the matter for hearing for August 21, Wednesday.
The petitioners have sought permanent removal of the Sonsoddo waste dump claiming it poses grave threat to the health and the environment of citizens in the vicinity of the site. As a result of mismanagement by MMC and Fomento, the PIL states that the dump was in flames from May 27 to June 7 causing immense air pollution.
In the interim, the petitioners sought to restrain the respondents from dumping any further non-segregated or segregated waste at the site whilst also directing the MMC to produce a plan with bar chart for complete evacuation of the dump prior to the 2020 monsoons; and for an order restraining the civic body from granting any new licence for construction within its jurisdiction till the removal of the dump.
