PANAJI
Coming down heavily on the government, the Bombay High Court at Goa has told it in no uncertain terms the court would be willing to listen to the defence against the dumping of debris in the low-lying areas of Merces, until it has taken remedial action.
Hearing a contempt petition filed by Adv Aires Rodrigues, bench of justices Nutan Sardesai and N M Jamdar questioned why no action was taken no sooner the contempt petition was filed.
"We direct the village panchayat concerned to remove and re
Coming down heavily on the government, the Bombay High Court at Goa has told it in no uncertain terms the court would be willing to listen to the defence against the dumping of debris in the low-lying areas of Merces, until it has taken remedial action.
Hearing a contempt petition filed by Adv Aires Rodrigues, bench of justices Nutan Sardesai and N M Jamdar questioned why no action was taken no sooner the contempt petition was filed.
"We direct the village panchayat concerned to remove and re
locate the debris immediately to a place which will not be in violation of the orders of this court. In fact, it was expected that after this court had issued notice in the contempt petition, the VP should have by itself taken positive steps. It does not need orders of the court to undertake such a basic task," the court said in its order.
"We will hear the respondents after they have remedied the situation which is pointed out in the photographs... in the meanwhile, the responsible officer from the State of Goa, who is in charge of this issue, will remain present in the court to give instructions to the learned government advocate so that further adjournment for want of instructions can be avoided," the court ruled.
Adv Aires Rodrigues in his petition has referred to a 2007 Public Interest Litigation before the Bombay High Court at Goa over the rampant dumping of building debris along the Panaji-Old Goa bypass road.
In that case, the Government of Goa had given an undertaking that it would within a period of three months identify and designate separate places for safe disposal of building debris without harming the environment, besides also identify and place at proper convenient locations public receptacles, depots or places for temporary deposit or collection of non-biodegradable garbage.
"We will hear the respondents after they have remedied the situation which is pointed out in the photographs... in the meanwhile, the responsible officer from the State of Goa, who is in charge of this issue, will remain present in the court to give instructions to the learned government advocate so that further adjournment for want of instructions can be avoided," the court ruled.
Adv Aires Rodrigues in his petition has referred to a 2007 Public Interest Litigation before the Bombay High Court at Goa over the rampant dumping of building debris along the Panaji-Old Goa bypass road.
In that case, the Government of Goa had given an undertaking that it would within a period of three months identify and designate separate places for safe disposal of building debris without harming the environment, besides also identify and place at proper convenient locations public receptacles, depots or places for temporary deposit or collection of non-biodegradable garbage.
