PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said the State government will slash the maximum permissible quantum of coal handled at the MPT after results of fresh tests being conducted by the Goa State Pollution Control Board.
Sawant said, he has directed the GSPCB to conduct fresh tests and prepare report on the pollution caused at MPT with the coal handling operations there.
"The government has asked GSPCB to revisit the permission process for coal handling at MPT," Sawant said, adding that pollution levels with current permissible quantum will be checked.
The decision to slash the quantums of the fossil fuel permitted to be handled at MPT by 50 percent will be taken after the GSPCB submits this fresh report, he added.
On Wednesday, after a cabinet meeting, Sawant had said the coal handled at MPT will be halved in a bid to placate a swelling agitation against the government's alleged bid to hasten projects cumulatively suspected to contribute to a coal transportation corridor.
The three projects - - double tracking of the South Western Railway track, four-laning of National Highway 4A and a private power project involving laying inter-State transmission lines -- have faced stiff and persistent opposition with the agitation against them swelling over the last several recent weeks.
The growing stir has also gained a soaring traction nationally and even globally through social media platforms where the hashtag #SaveMollem campaign is resonating.
The projects cut through protected forests of the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mollem National Park. The nod to these projects was granted by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) dubiously during the national lockdown via a video-conferencing meet in April.
Ever since hundreds of scientists, wildlife researchers, students, academicians and civil society in Goa have organised a series of protest actions in both online and offline mode against these projects.
The spontaneous response the #SaveMollem and anti-coal movements have received, has rattled the government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Sawant has been on a damage control mission.
His decision to hold a fresh assessment of the coal pollution to decide to slash quantum handled at the port by JSW and Adanis among others is seen as one such damage control effort.
