PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has imposed restrictions on the transport of ore through the village of Mayem imposing a limit of 50 trips per day and a time limit of 10 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm beyond which no transportation can be allowed.
Hearing a petition filed by the villagers of Mayem, the High Court also ruled that until two further air quality monitoring stations are set up in the village “ one at the panchayat ghar and another at a location recommended by the villagers, no ore transport can resume.
“Instead of the 230 trucks which were transporting through the village, there would be only 50 trips per day. They also reduced the timing to 10 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm, which is a total of five hours instead of the earlier 8 hours. And they asked for strict compliance. This is because the company said that the ore which is already gone to the jetty, we cannot export it unless the balance goes there and there is an assessment,” Adv Norma Alvares who represented the villagers, said.
The petition was filed by the villagers because ore had never been transported through their village all the years of mining but the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) had given permission for transportation to one company in 2022 which these villagers had come to the HC to stop and the HC had stopped the transportation. However, the DMG issued a fresh permission to another company to transport through the Mayem village which we opposed.
The villagers argued before the Court that the MoEF had issued a memorandum that no ore should go through the villages and that if a company is using the village network, they should ensure that they are properly strengthened and that they’ve got carrying capacity.
“Today the HC recorded that out of the 26,000 MT of ore that was permitted to be transported by an order of 28th December 2023 the company started transporting on the 8th of January and from 8th January till 17th January they had already transported 17,000 MT of ore. So only 5,900 was left balance and the court felt that although prima facie the villagers were entitled to relief, looking at the fact that 3/4th had already been transported, the court felt that the balance 5,000 only and nothing more can go through Mayem villages with certain conditions,” Alvares said.
“The HC has directed that in addition to the one monitoring station which the pollution board has put in the village two more have to be erected “ one will be on the panchayat ghar and another on another house which the petitioners have to give the location. Finally the court has said that two CCTV cameras will also be installed in the village where the connection will be made to the village panchayat where a station will be set up so that the people of the village can look and see the kind of transportation taking place, whether it is covered with tarpaulin, whether the speed limit is there,” she added.
The court has said no further transportation (permission) will be given until the matter is heard by the court, she added.
