MARGAO
With the PWD repeatedly caught napping on plugging the sewage discharge from a chamber behind the KTC bus stand, Margao, the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has slapped a fine of Rs 1.18 crore on it by invoking the polluter-pays principle.
The complainant Dr Ashish Kamat, however, said he is not happy with the decision of the GSPCB. “One government department has directed another to pay the penalty, which means the PWD will pay from the taxpayers’ money. Instead, the GSPCB should have directed action against the engineers in the form of FIR for causing the nuisance,” he said.
Terming the reply filed by the PWD to the show-cause notice as non-satisfactory, GSPCB Member Secretary Dr Shamila Monteiro has directed the department’s Principal Chief Engineer to pay an amount of Rs 1.18 crore as a polluter-pays penalty as per the order the National Green Tribunal towards the cost of carrying out a remediation exercise in the affected area.
The GSPCB Member Secretary has warned that failure to comply with the order will compel the Board to initiate immediate action under section 30, 32 and 33 and section 41 read with section 48 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, against the Principal Chief Engineer without any further notice.
The GSPCB action comes following an inspection conducted by the agency of the polluting/leaking sewer manhole after the PWD claimed that the same has been plugged.
On inspection, GSPCB officials found that the sewerage chamber manhole of the PWD sewerage line behind the KTC bus stand has been plugged with concrete and presently there is no flow of sewerage through the sewerage chamber.
It was also observed that the wastewater stagnation is observed at the site into the fields and that the leaking sewage manhole through which raw sewage was flowing continuously into the fields has been plugged and presently there is no sewage outflow into the fields.
The GSPCB Member Secretary, however, pointed out that the reply submitted by the Executive Engineer, PWD, WD, XXI, was found to be non-satisfactory and hence slapped the penalty amounting to Rs 1.18 crore.
The GSPCB had acted on a complaint lodged by the resident of Fatorda Dr Ashish Kamat, who had been pursuing the matter over the last many months as the leaking chamber was discharging raw sewage in the adjoining fields and low-lying areas posing health hazard to the local residents, besides the farmers.
Dr Ashish said he would be happy only if a permanent solution is brought to the problem. “I cannot be happy when the department which has been penalized will pay the fine from the taxpayers’ money. Until such time the officers are taken to task, there cannot be happiness,” he added.
