House adjourned for 10 mins amid protests over coal-handling cess
Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar adjourned the House for 10 minutes on Friday after opposition MLAs rushed to the well in protest of state govt's failure to collect green cess on coal-handling from Jindal and Adani.
The legislators vehemently declared that they did not want coal in Goa. Opposition leader Yuri Alemao alleged that the two companies handled double the amount of coal than the permissible limit, and that govt had failed to recover around Rs 4,000 crore from them. He also said that coal imports increased after the cessation of ore mining in 2012, and that even though everyone objected to coal-handling at the Mormugao port during subsequent public hearings, the activity was still recommended for environmental clearance (EC).
Alemao further said that the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) had reduced coal-handling at the port by 25% based on a letter by former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, but it was reversed following Parrikar's death. He told the House that the environment department had written a letter calling for a decrease in coal-handling at the Mormugao port and that this letter was put in the public domain at a public hearing.
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He asked whether the letter was ultimately sent to New Delhi to be included in the coastal zone management plan. While chief minster Pramod Sawant said it was, Alemao claimed it was never sent.
'My charge is that the EC was illegally granted as state govt hid the letter and did not send it to Centre,' the opposition leader said. Sawant responded that all the documents placed at the public hearing were sent to Delhi. Alemao also accused govt of allowing illegalities at the Mormugao port pertaining to coal-handling, but Sawant insisted that govt was not allowing any illegalities there and that coal was handled according to the limit.
Environment minister Aleixo Sequeira said the import and export of coal are monitored by the GSPCB, and agreed with the figures pointed out by Alemao. Sequeira said that the GSPCB had not given any permission to increase coal-handling at Mormugao port as there is no bypass road for its transportation. He promised that in the next assembly session, he would provide the correct coal-handling figures.
Alemao pointed out that Sawant claimed coal was handled as per the EC limit, but that the environment minister contradicted the chief minister. 'Jindal and Adani are handling double the amount of coal compared to the EC limit,' Alemao said. 'Jindal has not paid green cess since 2013, which amounts to Rs 3,000-4,000 crore, and it needs to be recovered. When will it be recovered?'
Sawant replied that govt had recovered green cess on coal-handling. His response didn't sit well with the opposition, prompting them to rush to the well of the House.
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