MARGAO
It’s now six days since a blast at Fatorda scrapyard rattled the neighbourhood, leaving two workers injured.
The workers, as per the police report, are still convalescing at the Goa Medical College and Hospital in Bambolim. In the aftermath of the incident, the Fatorda police moved the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao with a supplementary complaint, to initiate proceedings against the scrapyards operating in the police station jurisdiction under Section 133 of the CrPC. The scrapyard owners, on the other hand, maintain that they have all applied to the government for land to shift the operations to the trade zones.
The moot question, however, is unanswered “ whether there is any hope that the scrapyards operating in the towns and villages will be relocated to the industrial zones or the specially designated zones and abate the nuisance and health hazard in the residential areas.
Indeed, it’s over a decade now since the government has failed to come out with a policy to regulate the scrapyards or shift them to the proposed trade zones. And, concerned authorities seemed all involved in passing the buck, as a result of which a solution has eluded the government to date.
Consider this. Against the backdrop of the blast at the Fatorda scrapyard, the local police say they are moving the SDM, Margao with a supplementary complaint against the scrapyard in question. Reason? Previous complaints initiated against the scrapyards dotting Fatorda countryside before the SDM have failed to bring the desired result.
“After checking the files, it has come to light that the police had filed complaints against the scrapyards under Section 133. We are left with no option but to file a supplementary complaint against the erring scrapyard,” informed Fatorda police station in-charge, PI Ditendra Naik.
When The Goan called up the Director of Municipal Administration Gurudas Pilarnekar to shed light on scrapyards in the urban local bodies, he was quick to point out that his office has directed the civic bodies to submit a list of scrapyards in their respective jurisdiction.
“The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has asked for a report on the location of scrapyards in municipal areas. I have called for the latest report from the civic bodies on the ground reality,” he said.
Sources in the Margao municipality, however, pointed out that no fresh survey is being initiated by the civic body: “We have an old list compiled by the civic body stating that around 19 scrapyards are operating in the town. The list will be forwarded to the DMA’s office,” an official said.
Interestingly, hopes for the early shifting of the scrapyards to the industrial areas were raised around 2019 after the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) had initiated an exercise upon request of the Industries department. The initiative, however, could not take off after the GSPCB failed to issue the necessary guidelines on how to go about the job, coupled with the fact that the land issue scuttled the project.
Says Margao councillor Camilo Barretto: “I had called for a Fatorda bandh around a decade ago after a blast at a scrapyard had claimed the life of a worker. The ground reality has not changed for the better in the last decade. Not a single scrapyard has been shifted from Fatorda to date. I will have no option but to call for another bandh if the authorities do not act.”
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Photo caption -
There is still no plan to accept these scrap items at the Industrial estates dotting the State.
No provision in Industrial policy to relocate scrapyards: Godinho
MARGAO
Asserting that the draft Industrial policy has no provision to relocate the scrapyards from the towns and villages in the industrial areas, Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho was categorical in saying that scrapyards do not fall in the domain of the Industries department.
Godinho told The Goan that he is not in favour of the scrapyards being shifted to the Industrial estate and spoiling the environment.
He was reacting to a query whether the draft Industrial policy has any provision which would ensure the illegal scrapyards from the towns and villages are shifted to the Industrial estates or the Trade zones mooted by the government in 2010.
The Goan had drawn the minister’s attention to the Goa Waste (Scrap) Recycling Units Scheme, launched with much fanfare by the government in 2010, which had mooted shifting of the scrapyards operating in the towns and villages into the trade zones.
“I have no idea about these trade zones to be set up for the scrapyards,” he said.
When he was asked whether the industrial estates will play host to the scrapyards with the trade zones yet to see the light of the day, Godinho shot back: “I do not want these illegal yards to be shifted to the industrial estates and spoil the environment.”
Plans to move scrapyards fail to take off
MARGAO
Will the office of Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao shed light on the exercise initiated by the office around a decade ago to shift the scrapyards into the proposed trade zones?
The Goan understands that the government-constituted Joint taluka committee headed by then Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao Johnson Fernandes had initiated an exercise aimed at rehabilitating the illegal scrapyards dotting Salcete countryside.
If sources are to be believed, the SDM’s office had received as many as 149 applications from the scrapyard owners for shifting to trade zones. The then deputy collector had shortlisted as many as 50 yards for immediate shifting. The office had even recommended to the Industries department to register the yards to facilitate shifting.
A decade later, the ground reality has remained unchanged with neither the trade zones set up by the government nor yards shifted.
