TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: A day after opponents of the proposed International Greenfield airport at Mopa termed both, the Environment Impact Assessment report and the public hearing, as illegal, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), has clarified that the fact that the hearing was conducted after expiry of Terms of Reference (ToR) period has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for further decision.
Without denying the charges, the GSPCB, the authority which conducted the public hearing on Mopa, has also made it clear that the Board has not granted any Consent for Construction or Development to the proposed Mopa airport and that the public hearing was conducted by them following directives from MoEF, which has no nodal agency in the State.
Speaking to Herald, GSPCB Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said that the Board does not examine the legality of the project, until it has to give Consent to Establish or Operate. “Our duty is only to conduct the public hearing and compile and submit the minutes to MoEF. We have no say in the public hearing or in any other aspect,” Noronha clarified, adding that the public hearing was conducted following a request from the Directorate of Civil Aviation on October 20, 2014.
Noronha said that the issue of validity of ToR was raised during the public hearing and the same has been sent to MoEF, which is the regulatory authority for granting Environment Clearance (EC) for the project based on EIA and public hearing. “Let MoEF declare the public hearing as null and void,” he said.
Pointing to the MoEF’s EIA notification issued in 2006, the GSPCB chairman said that if pollution control board does not conduct the public hearing, MoEF can engage another public agency or authority for conducting it.
“If that private agency claims law and order situation at the proposed project site during hearing, then the MoEF can directly go ahead and grant EC,” he clarified.
Noronha also said that if the project’s ToR validity lapses, then it is the duty of the director civil aviation, the project proponent, to cross check the same and then request us to conduct the hearing.
