PANJIM: Advocate General Devidas Pangam on Thursday assured the High Court of Bombay at Goa that until the Court permits transportation of iron ore, no transit permits will be issued to any of the parties to carry ore through Mayem village, even if the State government approves the routes for such transportation.
While hearing a miscellaneous civil application filed by the Surakshit Distributors Pvt Ltd, through Sushil Khandelwal, the High Court Judges comprising Justice Mahesh Sonak and Justice Valmiki SA Menezes allowed the State government to consider the applications seeking leave to transport iron ore and place such decisions before the Court on the next date. But the division bench clarified that even if the State government decides to grant permissions on certain routes, such permissions would not be given effect to, until further orders from the Court.
The Court also told the Central Government Standing Counsel Adv Somnath Karpe, that if the Government of India wishes to file any affidavit, it should do so within next two weeks. In any case, the Union government must assist the Court in resolving the issues raised in the petition and for this purpose, keep ready whatever material that concerns the issues raised in this petition.
Adv Norma Alvares, arguing on behalf of the original petitioner The Mulakh Khajan Farmers Association from Mayem-Bicholim and the Goa Foundation, stated that a rejoinder will be filed in the PIL writ petition within next two weeks. However, Adv Alvares said that if any response is to be filed in the miscellaneous civil application, then the same will also be filed within two weeks.
The Directorate of Mines and Geology has already filed its affidavit.
On January 17 this year, the High Court had directed the Directorate of Mines and Geology and the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) not to grant permissions for transportation of e-auctioned iron ore by private parties through villages, without the leave of the Court, and till such time that real time ore transportation mechanism is set up in the village including two more pollution monitoring stations and two CCTV cameras with monitoring mechanism are installed at the local Mayem village panchayat.
Both, the PIL writ petition and the miscellaneous civil application has now been posted for further directions on March 26.