Thursday, June 17, 2010

National Environment Appellate Authority Chairman visits Careamol Mine


The Chairman of National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) Shri J.C. kala along with officials from Ministry of Environment and Forest, officials of Goa Pollution Control Board, Department of Mines along with the petitioners and concerned citizen on Thursday 17 June 2010 visited the Careamol iron Mine of Jaising Mangalji to g et first hand information about the site.


It may be recalled that the Careamol iron ore mine under T.C. No.80/59 to which Public hearing was held in September 2006 in Gomantak vidya Niketan hall, Margao the villagers of Pirla opposed the mine on the ground that the Environment Impact Assessment report submitted by the mine proponent is false and distorted. The villagers of Pirla in contrary to the EIA report which states that the Kushawati river is at a distance of 1.5 kms form the propose mine and there are no protected sites within a radius 10 kms. The villagers stated that the Kushawati River is just at a distance of 50 to 20 mts from the mining site and the Ponsamol protected sites are at a distance of 1.00Kms. The villagers also opposed the mine on the ground that the area is fully covered with forest land and large area is under agriculture.


That in spite of the objection raised by the villagers the Ministry of Environment and Forest issued Environment clearance to the said mine which was challenge by the National Environment Appellate Authority, New Delhi. The NEAA dismissed the appeal of the villagers, which was then challenged before the Delhi High Court who set aside the order the of NEAA order and returned the case to NEAA to decide fresh.


The chairman of NEAA along with other officials personally visited the site and got fist hand information as to how far the Kushawati river is from the proposed mine, how many rivulet are there in the mining lease, how many people will be affected. The chairman of the NEAA gave a patient hearing to the grievances raised by the villagers.


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