SC opens Meta Strips, AMCAC to intensify stir

Sandesh Prabhudesai
11 May 2000  

The supreme court has temporarily put to rest the controversy over Meta Strips project in Goa by granting interim stay on the government order to close the factory, thereby allowing the company to begin production.

The Anti Meta Strips Citizens Action Committee, in retaliation, has now decided to intensify their agitation from Saturday onwards. Chief minister Francisco Sardinha has however said he would decide his course of action only after the expert committee prepares its report on the alleged pollution threat caused by the plant.

Information regarding lifting of the closure of the factory was passed on to the journalists by the chief minister himself today evening. He had rushed the advocate general to Delhi after the government counsel had earlier agreed to open the factory.

While the court today permitted government counsel Bhavanishankar Gadnis to withdraw his statement, the matter was heard once again and interim stay was granted on the April order to close the factory. The company had challenged the order in the supreme court.

Justice Santosh Hedge also asked why the government needs to constitute experts committee and then decide about lifting the closure when all the concerned authorities including the state and central pollution control boards had permitted it. Advocate general Atmaram Nadkarni however pointed out that these permissions were not statutory.

Though the CM still insists that he would go ahead with the experts committee to probe into the pollution angle, he is non-committal on whether he would wait for the final court order before considering the committee recommendations. The next court hearing is scheduled on 10 July.

"It is a conspiracy", feels AMCAC secretary Nelson Fernandes, "to create confusion over the matter in the court so that the company could begin production. We are prepared to die but would not allow the plant to come up under any circumstances".

The factory premises however appears to be safe now as the court has restrained all the respondents including the government as well as the AMCAC from obstructing the Meta Strips from carrying on its activities in the factory.

The police security around the factory as well as in the coastal villages of South Goa however has been tightened up once again. The factory was closed following violent protests by the villagers and blocking the national highway and stoning the public transport buses last month.

Over a year now Goa is witnessing the agitation against the Rs 250 crore copper processing plant, owned by Sushil Khaitan and promoted by the House of Jindals as the former is Dr Sitaram Jindal's son-in-law. The local church is also actively supporting the agitation.

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