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PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has directed the Collectors of North and South Goa to identify stone crushers operating without land conversion sanads and issue them notices to either furnish their sanads or give them time to apply for the same.
In an interim ruling in the long-standing legal battle waged by villagers of St Jose de Areal against stone crushers operating in their village, the High Court denied the government any further time to file the report and directed the Collectors to comply within six weeks.
The issue in contention was whether stone crushers can operate on a site without obtaining a conversion sanad for the land.
The State’s Revenue Department had issued a Notification on March 2, under Section 35 of the Land Revenue Code, retrospectively exempting stone crusher units from obtaining conversion sanads.
“Nothing is placed on record what is the public interest,” the High Court said and held that the Land Revenue Code does not empower the State government to issue a notification in respect of lands on which stone crushing units are operating.
“It will be incumbent upon the stone crushing units to apply for conversion sanads and after permission was granted, or conversion sanad is obtained that this activity can be considered as legal,” the High Court held in the ruling.
Villagers in St Jose de Areal have for almost a decade been agitating against a number of stone crushers operating in their village citing massive dust pollution.
They approached the High Court in 2009 under the banner of Sao Jose De Areal Villagers Union.
The next hearing has been fixed after eight weeks.
