National Green Tribunal
Scheduled Tribe Association Sao Jose De ... vs The Goa State Pollution Control Board on 23 April, 2024
Item No.3 (Pune Bench)
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
WESTERN ZONE BENCH, PUNE
[Through Physical Hearing (With Hybrid Option)]
ORIGINAL APPLICATION NO.80 OF 2024 (WZ)
Scheduled Tribe Association & Ors. .... Applicants
Versus
Goa State Pollution Control Board & Ors. ....Respondents
Date of hearing : 23.04.2024
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DINESH KUMAR SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. VIJAY KULKARNI, EXPERT MEMBER
Applicants : Ms. Ronita Bhattacharya, Advocate
ORDER
1. This Original Application has been filed by three Associations i.e. Scheduled Tribe Association of Sao Jose De Areal (applicant No.1), Social Justice Forum of Sao Jose De Areal (applicant No.2) and Ralloi Residents Welfare Association of Sao Jose De Areal (applicant No.3), which are associations of local villagers, who are working for safety and health of the villagers of Sao Jose De Areal located in Curtorim in Salcete Taluka of Goa. It is stated that the said village is a landlocked village located in Salcete Goa having approximately 3000 families. Respondent No.4 - Goa Carbon Ltd is operating its plant of calcination of 3,08,000 TPA (843.83 TPD) capacity from four decades in the said village emitting toxic and impermissible effluent fumes, which are causing air pollution, which is resulting in harm to the health of the local residents. Against the said Industry, from its inception i.e.1980, complaints were made by the villagers regarding pollution being spread by respondent No.4. One such complaint is annexed at Annexure-A1. Pet Coke, which is being [NPJ] Page 1 of 4 produced by respondent No.4 is highly dangerous to health. Raw Petroleum Coke (RPC) or Green Coke is subjected to a calcination process in a rotary kiln, where it is heated to 1000 or 1350 Degrees Celsius to remove its moisture content. The treatment of RPC is then burnt at which time it is de-volatised and then calcined where it is densified. Lastly, the RPC is cooled down in a rotary cooler where it is sprayed with moisture and is processed further till the final product is moisture free. The product is then taken to finished storage godowns. The calcined pet- coke is majorly used in the steel and aluminum industries. This process mainly generates pollution in the form of Particulate Matter and also includes Oxides of Sulphur and Nitrogen. It is further submitted that there have been 221 instances during the period from January, 2023 to January, 2024 where the emissions from respondent No.4 exceeded 150 mg/Nm3 which is highly dangerous for the environment and the people living in the vicinity. It is also pointed out that the complaint was made before the Goa Human Rights Commission, which conducted an enquiry and submitted its report dated 15.03.2022, which is annexed at pages 279 to 287 of the paper-book, wherein the following recommendations were made in paragraph No.15:
(a) The Respondent No.1 shall install Ambient Air Monitoring Equipments at different locations identified by the Complainants and carry out the monitoring at least over a period of one year and shall take into consideration the reports while issuing the permission to operate the unit;
(b) Regular inspection shall be carried out by the Respondent No.1 inside the factory and also within a radius of one kilometer from the center point of the factory and necessary direction shall be given to the Respondent No.2, to stop the pollution, if any;
(c) Whenever the consent to operate the unit of the Respondent No.2 is given with conditions, the Respondent No.1 shall see to it that all those conditions are complied with within certain prescribed [NPJ] Page 2 of 4 time limit and if not complied with, the Respondent No.1 shall consider whether to withdraw/suspend consent.
(d) No renewal of consent to operate the unit shall be given by the Respondent No.1 unless all the conditions mentioned in previous consent have been duly complied with.
(e) Consent to operate the unit shall not be given by the Respondent No.1 for more than for one year every time, from 01/04/2024, when the present consent to operate expires."
2. In view of above, it is mainly prayed by the applicants that a direction may be issued to respondent No.1 i.e. Goa State Pollution Control Board to ensure that the unit of respondent No.4 be permanently closed down or be relocated elsewhere in industrial area and respondent No.1 be restrained from renewing the Consent to Operate dated 28.03.2019 or revoke any new consent subsequently granted.
3. We find that prima facie, substantial question impacting the environment is made out in this application. Therefore, we admit this Original Application and direct the Registry to issue notice to the respondents, returnable within four weeks.
4. The applicants are directed to provide copies of the Original Application and annexures thereto to the respondents, within a week.
5. The applicants are also directed to take necessary steps for service upon the respondents by both ways and also through available e-mail.
6. We deem it appropriate to constitute a Joint Committee comprising one member each of Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), the Chief Secretary, State of Goa and Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), GSPCB being the nodal agency of the said Committee, with a direction that the Committee shall visit the spot after intimating the applicants the date of its visit to the spot. After visiting the spot, the Joint Committee will submit a report as to whether respondent No.4 has been granted all the consents which were required [NPJ] Page 3 of 4 to be obtained for setting up the Industry and whether the conditions laid down therein have been complied with by them or not and if there is any non-compliance on the part of respondent No.4, amount of Environmental Damage Compensation (EDC) to be levied from respondent No.4 and the corrective action may also be proposed. Let this report of the Committee be submitted before us by the GSPCB within one month, by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.
7. A copy of this order shall be served upon all the members of the Joint Committee by the GSPCB for compliance as above.
8. Put up this matter for next consideration on 18.07.2024.
Dinesh Kumar Singh, JM Dr. Vijay Kulkarni, EM April 23, 2024 O.A. No.80/2024 (WZ) npj [NPJ] Page 4 of 4