Team Herald
MARGAO: Villagers from across the Nuvem Assembly constituency who live around the Verna Industrial Estate (VIE) submitted a memorandum to the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) expressing their opposition to the proposed waste treatment plant in the VIE.
The group questioned how GIDC had allotted land in the VIE to set up a 250 TPD waste management plant and how plots admeasuring around 1 lakh sq. metres were handed over to the Goa Waste Management Authority without even the necessary safeguard of an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
They expressed their shock that GIDC accepted payment for this land without ensuring that it was suitable for the purpose. They also pointed out that GIDC can only allot plots to industries, according to the by-laws.
They said the plans of setting up such a plant slated to cater to three municipalities and 36 villages are unacceptable to the locals, especially in view of the current mismanagement and failure to enforce regulations, systems, safeguards, checks and procedures by GIDC.
Highlighting problems of water pollution, water scarcity and garbage menace faced by them due to the unchecked industrial growth in the State’s biggest industrial estate, the villagers pointed out that the 172-odd bore wells in VIE are depleting the water table of the surrounding areas and that pollutants released by the industries are polluting 32-odd springs and the origin point of River Sal.
Villagers from Nuvem, Nagoa, Verna and Loutolim also demanded that Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) set up a permanent office in the industrial estate to keep a check on pollution.