Study each ore transport route properly before nod: HC to govt

Panaji: The high court of Bombay at Goa has told the directorate of mines and geology and the Goa state pollution control board to carry out a proper study of each ore transportation route. In its order on Tuesday, the division bench said that govt can only take a decision to grant transport permission after studying the number of houses, population, schools, and other activities on these routes.

The petitioners, the Mulakh Khajan Farmers Association, Mayem, and Goa Foundation, submitted to the court that the safety of villagers and school-going children would be endangered with a sudden increase in truck and tipper traffic. They also informed the court that the noise and environmental pollution that would be caused by this transportation is in complete conflict with fundamental rights.
After the petitioners said that the massive invasion will disturb the equilibrium of the village and will only serve the business interests of the project proponent to the detriment of the villagers, the bench of justices M S Karnik and Valmiki Menezes asked the two state bodies to prepare a report specific to each route permitted by them to transport ore through villages.
The court said that the two bodies will “undoubtedly have to consider the length of the route, number of houses/hamlets situated on the route with a study of the population enroute, details of schools or other such activities..., apart from other factors”. The court added that this will “accord the spirit of the office memorandum issued by the environment ministry that banned transportation of ore via village roads".
The HC further directed the directorate and board to monitor trucks on each route on a real-time basis as far as possible, as well as to install CCTV cameras. The cameras would have to be connected to DVR devices at panchayat ghars and/or other locations where designated officials can monitor and observe the movement of these trucks.
It also told the two bodies to, as far as possible, install pollution monitoring devices that upload data to the server of the DMG and GSPCB in real time, to enable the departments to monitor the air quality along the designated routes in real time and to arrest the movement of trucks, if required, to bring air pollution to within permissible norms.