PANAJI: The Goa State Pollution Control Board on Friday decided to withdraw the show-cause notices issued to several mining companies for alleged violation of consent terms and environmental laws after considering their replies.
Bank guarantees furnished by these companies operating some 35 mines and transporting iron ore in a single cluster will also be released, except in the case of three mines whose replies were found
unsatisfactory.
In these 3 cases the bank guarantees of two mining operators will be forfeited while the third case will be further probed, GSPCB member secretary Levinson Martins said.
Martins, however, did not identify the mines or the companies operating these but most of the cases pertained to the Sonshi village of Sattari taluka where dust pollution was found to be much higher than permitted levels.
GSPCB had swung into action after locals took to the streets blocking trucks transporting iron ore in the village much before the Supreme Court ban came into force.
