PANJIM: Maintaining that coal pollution has dropped below the threshold limit, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said the government is making every effort to reduce pollution.
“I have written to the Ministry of Environment that we don’t need coal expansion. The present situation needs to be controlled and our efforts are on. It is already under control. Pollution has come much below the threshold,” he said late Friday evening. The chief minister was reacting to demands from Goa Against Coal to stop coal handling activities at MPT. “The demand should be against coal pollution, and not against coal. What is important is that the power is coal based,” he said reiterating, “We don’t want coal expansion projects.” It is learnt that the government is looking for technology where the activity can take place without pollution.
Meanwhile, Goa Against Coal (GAC) has threatened to intensify its protest if the government fails to stop the coal handling facility at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), even as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday assured them that expansion of the facility proposed by South West Port Ltd (SWPL) would not be allowed.
GAC members on Friday met the Chief Minister demanding a complete stop to the coal handling activities at MPT, and so also transportation, reiterating that the project has led to much pollution in Vasco.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, GAC president Custodio D’Souza said that Parrikar admitted that Vasco is polluted due to coal handling and transportation.
“After a four-month-long struggle, we finally managed to get an appointment with the Chief Minister. He opined that we should not name our protest as ‘Goa Against Coal’ but it should be ‘Goa Against Pollution’,” he said,
“This itself prove that the CM admits that there is pollution in Vasco and it is due to coal,” D’Souza said, welcoming Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari’s offer to shift coal hub from Goa to Maharashtra. “We don’t want coal, not in Vasco, not in Goa. We welcome the move of Union Minister to shift the facility to Maharashtra,” he stated.
GAC members said that they will intensify their fight against the move to make Goa a coal hub. “We are not going to keep quiet till the coal handling facility is stopped completely,” D’Souza said
