VASCO: Reacting to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement in the House that a process has been initiated to prosecute Adani, JSW and MPT for exceeding the pollution limit in Vasco, Adani officials in Goa claimed they have been operating only at 10 to 15 percent of the capacity and hence are not contributing to any pollution.
“Whatever prosecution CM is taking about is for defaulters. We will not fall in the defaulter line because as we are not defaulting on volume, we are not defaulting on any of the parameters which are supposed to be taken on or mitigation measures for pollution,” Captain Anurag Bhagauliwal, Business Head Adani Goa unit, said.
He added, “We received a letter from Goa State Pollution Control Board to reduce our handling capacity by 25 percent. Our capacity was 5.5 million tonnes and as per the new GSPCB circular we were supposed to handle 3.9 million. We have never handled coal beyond 2 million tonnes, and this year we thought of doing 1 million. So if we are handling 10 to 15 percent of our capacity with such a huge setup, how can Adani coal terminal become a polluter?”
Asked whether Adani accepts pollution charges, he said, “We are taking all precautions which we are supposed to take under the guidelines. Readings from our terminal are in line and not exceeding. Out of total (approx) 12 million tonnes coal cargo handled at Mormugao port last year, Adani handled only 1.9 million tonnes, which means that we are handling only 20 percent of the total cargo at the port, so how can we contribute towards pollution? We have state of the art equipment, we have online monitoring system and the readings are shared with all concerned agencies. We wash trucks which go by road before they leave our premises. Whatever precautions we are able to take we are taking and not contributing to any pollution,” he said.
Bhagauliwal added, “When GSPCB found that the readings were high we were not even handling any cargo as there was no coal in our yard. When we inquired we found that the reading was high because some road construction was going on, similarly the port was handling Gypsum and as these machines catch dust in the surrounding we were blamed.”
