HC nod for mobile tower in vicinity of special school

Panaji: The division bench of the high court of Bombay at Goa has permitted Indus Towers Ltd to go ahead with the construction of a mobile tower in the vicinity of a school for students with disabilities, at Mapusa, “at their own will and risks” and subject to further orders of the court.
The work on the tower was stalled after the authority of the special school complained over possible health hazards posed to its students and an order was passed by the state commissioner for persons with disabilities after which construction was stopped.
In its complaint, the school authority stated that special students have inherent low immunity and are prone to various other ailments and that the radiations from a mobile phone tower installed in less than 100m range of the school premises may cause irreparable harm to these special students.
Senior advocate Anil Anturkar representing the company submitted that there is absolutely no scientific material or data submitted either in the complaint or submitted before the commissioner so as to arrive at a conclusion that the construction is a health hazard for differently-abled children, but is only an impression of the school authority.
The division bench comprising Justices Prasanna B Varale and Bharat P Deshpande allowed the parents of the differently-abled to intervene in the case. Through their counsel Parag S Rao, they submitted that they wanted to assist the HC so that children who are, as it is, suffering from life-threatening ailments/diseases are not exposed to radiation jeopardising their very survival.