PANAJI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) said the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) order asking the Corporation for the City of Panaji (CCP) to pay a Rs 18 lakh fine for not clearing waste at Campal parade grounds should be kept on hold. It has asked the pollution board to consider the submission of the corporation that it had already cleared the garbage.
The GSPCB has been given two months to issue a new order after a review of the corporation’s claims is carried out. The tribunal has, however, said that if the pollution control board finds any violation, the CCP will have to compensate for it.
The tribunal, having observed that both are official bodies, has disposed of the appeal by the CCP for now. “Instead of considering the appeal by seeking the response of the state PCB, we direct the state PCB to consider the objections of the appellant on merits and pass a further order in accordance with law,” the NGT has said in its order on December 11.
In June this year, the pollution control board issued a show-cause notice to the CCP commissioner as to why ‘polluter pays’ principle should not be applied to the corporation and why a fine of Rs 18 lakh should not be imposed for improper handling of garbage. The CCP was told that its dumping of waste at Campal parade grounds was in violation of environmental and solid waste management norms.
The show-cause was issued after GSPCB carried out an inspection where unsegregated tree waste, construction debris, waste from desilted drains and legacy waste was found dumped at the parade ground. On September 14, 2020, the pollution control board asked CCP to deposit the sum of Rs 18 lakh as environmental compensation for improper handling of waste.
But CCP filed an appeal before the NGT stating that it had already complied with directives of the GSPCB over the waste and had cleared the waste from the site at Campal accordingly. CCP said no damage was therefore caused to the environment and the ‘polluter pays’ principle cannot be applied as a result.