MARGAO
Operations of stone crushing units in Salcete, doting across the villages of Sao Jose de Areal, Sarzora and Paroda, is expected to come to a grinding halt with immediate effect with the district authorities issuing stop-work order on units operating without conversion.
Of the total 62 crushers located in these three villages, six were found non-operational, while the remaining 56 were all in operation, including 42 in Sao Jose de Areal, 13 in Sarzora and one in Paroda.
Deputy Collector, Margao Sharmila Gaonkar has issued the stop-work order notices on these 56 crushing units and the same is being served on the parties through the Talathis and the police.
The action comes following the High Court ruling quashing and setting aside an order issued by the State government in 2009, retrospectively exempting basalt/stone crusher units from obtaining conversion Sanads and the recent directions issued by the office of the South Goa District Collector to initiate action against illegal stone crushing units.
Sources in the South Goa District Collectorate informed that the stone crushing activities will come to a complete halt at the 56 units when the operators receive the stop-work order. The owners have to either produce the conversion sanad or shut the units for want of land conversion.
The High Court had in November 2021 quashed and set aside the order and has directed the government to take consequential action, including implementation of the directions issued by the court against the units.
A two-judge bench of the High Court had ruled that the order issued by the State by invoking statutory power delegated under Section 35 of the Land Revenue Code is found to be manifestly arbitrary and hence wholly unsustainable.
“The order dated 2/3/2009, issued under Section 35 of the Land Revenue Code cannot be sustained and it deserves to be quashed and set aside”, the High Court stated while disposing of a writ petition filed by the Sao Jose de Areal Villagers Union challenging the government’s order retrospectively exempting basalt/stone crusher units from obtaining conversion sanads.
In 2009, the government issued the order after the High Court in 2008 passed a host of orders concerning the operation of the stone crusher units. However, before action against the stone crushing units could be initiated, the government on March 2, 2009, invoked powers under Section 35 of the Goa Land Revenue Code and retrospectively exempted the basalt, stone crusher units, which had valid registration issued by the Department of Mines, Industries, Trade and Commerce, wherein operation up to December 31, 2007, from obtaining conversion sanads for the area they are presently occupying in the respective holding.
The State had justified in invoking the power to exempt such lands from the operation of Sections 30 to 34 of the Code, submitting that the order was issued in public interest and furtherance of the objects of the Code, for the reason that activities of stone crushing were of immense importance for projects of public interest and infrastructure like roads, being undertaken by the respondent-State.
The court, however, observed that the tenor of the orders passed in Writ Petition no 20/2008 dated 6/2/2008 to 30/9/2008, sufficiently demonstrates that the respondent-State was facing adverse orders from the court in the said writ petition wherein it had become evident that the stone crusher units had been rampantly functioning illegally for a long time and that no steps in that regard were taken by the respondent-State.
