the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa over the weekend was hit by the heart-breaking news of the Tuem tragedy where child-like innocent mischief of indulging in a playful excursion robbed four lads barely in their teens to live their life.
Many, including the grieving kith and kin of the four tragically lost kids, may now retrospectively be training their guns on the the Don Bosco School at Tuem for letting the boys slip from the otherwise watchful eyes of the Saleisian priests who manage the school.
But an order of the Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal and the failure to adhere to the directions therein, squarely lays a lion’s share of the blame for Saturday-Sunday’s Tuem tragedy at the doorstep of the State administration. Directions to monitor the scientific filling of pits dug for legal and illegal mining of minor minerals such as basalt and masonary (laterite) stones were issued to the Goa government by the NGT’s principal bench at Delhi as recently as April 3, 2019.
Not just that. The then Advocate General, Dattaprasad Lawande, had also assured the bench that the
administration will act tough and ensure the pits in quarries are filled after the petitioner, Goa Paryavaran Savrakshan Sangharsh Samitee, Pernem, raised specific concerns that failure to do so is a potential death trap for human and wildlife.
Four months later, the administration continues to procrastinate and there is no visible action to ensure these make-shift swimming pools of death in Goa’s countryside are being monitored either by the Goa State Pollution Control Board, the Goa Mining Department or the District Adminitsration machinery either in North or South Goa.
According to the NGT order of April 3, 2019, Lawande on behalf of the State government had accepted the legal position (vis-a-vis scientific filling of the mining pits) and stated that there is need to educate the dealing officers in the whole State.
“He undertakes to the Tribunal that appropriate further corrective measures will be taken by the
authorities in the State,” the NGT order said of Lawande’s assurances to the tribunal.
On the question of filling the mining/quarry pits, the tribunal said: “Advocate General has suggested a tentative timeline of six months and stated that quarterly reports will be furnished to this Tribunal
about the progress in the matter.”
The order goes on to add that a report may also be furnished on steps taken by the Pollution Control Board by way of prohibitory and coercive measures, including prosecution and recovery of compensation for damage to the environment.
The action need not be confined to the area (Pernem) which is subject matter of the petitions, the Bench had said while noting: “We also expect the Chief Secretary, Goa to monitor the progress
at least once in a month as per the directions already issued vide order of this Tribunal dated January 16, 2019.”
With specific instructions of the NGT, despite specific assurances that they will be followed by the State’s counsel, going unheeded, the lion’s share of the weekend tragedy at Tuem cannot lay anywhere else but on the lap of the State administration.
