Sandesh Prabhudesai
21 August 1999
The controversy over allegedly pollutant project of Meta Strips coming
up in Goa is getting more intricate while the state government has now referred the matter
to the central pollution control board for review.
The project worth Rs 250 crore owned by Sushil Khaitan, coming up with
a Spanish collaboration on a hillock near the port town of Vasco, is being opposed by the
locals of Sancoale and other surrounding villages on the grounds of air, noise and water
pollution.
As the issue is getting aggravated on the eve of forthcoming elections,
chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has rejected the demand of villagers to conduct official
public hearing. Instead, he offers to hold a public debate between the company officials
and the agitators and local environmentalists.
The Anti Meta Strips Citizens Action Committee however wonders why
Faleiro is running away from holding the debate officially, if the government is at no
fault in approving the project. "There need not be any apprehension now as the CPCB
report would be totally independent, impartial and fair in nature", says the chief
minister.
While it is clear that he is simply trying to delay the matter due to
elections, Faleiro does not want to commit anything on reviewing the permission granted
for the project by the government in 1997. On the contrary, he expresses total ignorance
over the foul play in approval which is coming to light.
With M K Jos, a social activist, approaching the high court over the
issue, it has come to light that the government had actually approved the project proposal
of Nashik Wires Ltd two years ago. While changing its name to Meta Strips subsequently,
the company even changed its project report drastically.
The major change was regarding the daily water requirement, the
quantity of which is now raised from seven lakh litres to 40 lakh litres. The state PWD
authorities have now told the court that they are unable to meet the fresh requirement due
to short of water supply. The PWD has already requested the company to revert back to the
original requirement, which was approved earlier.
