“This was the follow up inspection at Sao Jose De Areal to verify the compliance of notices issued by authorities on scrap yards along with the Curtorim health officer, Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) officials, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) officials, panchayat members and mamlatdar.
“About 80 per cent of scrap yards have complied by either shifting completely or by covering,” added Panchwadkar while adding that notices had been issued to the scrap yards by the health department, GSPCB, IDC and Collectorate.
GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha stated that as per the High Court order show cause notices had been issued to the scrap yards out which only some had replied and that the hearings of both those who replied and did not would be held by the end of July and subsequently closure notices if required would be issued in August. He added that the health department had also already disconnected the electricity connections of eight persons.
Panchwadkar added that from the dengue cases that were confirmed in Sao Jose de Areal, 65 per cent of the cases were of migrant labourers and that there would be tenant verification drive soon to confirm the number of migrants labourers in the village.
