PANAJI
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Goa government (Department of Mines) to compensate Rs 16 lakh each to the families of four young students who lost their lives after they drowned in a quarry pit. The Tribunal ordered the Mines department to recover the monies from those operating the illegal quarries.
In an incident in September last year four 14-year old students who had gone for a swim in the quarries perished leading to an uproar over the open pit quarries that fill with water during the monsoons.
“It is a negligent Act on the part of the polluter or the persons who were involved in illegal mining for commercial purposes and due to negligence of those persons the four students of bright career succumbed to injuries and thus their family members are entitled for reasonable compensation. This can never be said to be an inevitable accident or Act of God,” the NGT said.
“The law imposes an obligation and duty on a person to take proper care so that the others may not be victims of their act,” the tribunal said.
“The four students succumbed to injuries due to falling in the pit left uncared for thus the family members of the deceased are entitled for the payment of compensation of Rs 16-lakh each with interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of the order. The State of Goa (Department of Mines) is directed to pay the amount of compensation to family members of the deceased,” the Tribunal bench of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh and Satyawan Singh Garbyal said.
“State of Goa may recover the amount from the polluters on the principles of Polluters Pay. Any amount paid to the family member of the deceased may be deducted from the above amount. The State may recover the total amount from the polluter according to law,” the NGT ruled.
The NGT using a precedent set by an earlier court to calculate the compensation due to a road accident victim, set the amount at Rs 16-lakh per victim.
“We have taken Rs 400 and at the rate of minimum 20 days work per month for 25-years of working life, the amount of compensation which is to be paid or for which the family members of the deceased are entitled are approximately Rs 16-lakh,” the NGT ruled.
In September last year, four students went for a swim in the quarry that was filled with rainwater and drowned. The four were part of a group of 40 boarders from a hostel who were taken for a trek at Tuem village in North Goa.
The NGT felt that the victims must be adequately compensated not only because of their loss but to try and ensure that negligence is not repeated.
“The consumer must not be made to run from pillar to post. Where there has been capacious arbitrary or negligent exercise or non exercise of power by the authorities or instrumentalities, the forum must be provided in the department itself to hear the grievances and take a decision to redress the public grievance,” the NGT said.
The Mines Department in its submissions told the NGT that 35 sites in Pernem were identified as operational and that no quarrying permit or quarrying lease has been granted in these cases.
The petitioner SM Walawaikar had approached the NGT alleging several quarries were operating illegally in the villages of Ozarim, Mandrem, Tuem, Corgao, Nagzar, Casarvornem and Alorna of Taluka Pernem praying for directions to forthwith stop the illegal mining and refill all the pits and stone quarries with mud and stones.
“It is unfortunate that matters which require immediate attention linger on and the man in the street is made to run from one end to another with no result. The culture of window clearance appears to be totally dead. Even in ordinary matters, a common who has neither the background nor the financial strength to match the inaction in a public oriented department gets frustrated and it erodes the credibility of the system. In a welfare State there should be immediate attention to public grievance in case some injury is caused by the government and its instrumentalities should not hesitate to compensate the sufferers and punish the wrongdoers,” the NGT said.
