Digital Goa, Jan 17 – High Court today gave a trendsetting order regarding transportation of mining ore through villages in Goa. In a victory of sorts for villagers of Mayem who have been fighting against transportation of mining ore through internal village roads, High Court has ordered that only 50 trucks will be permitted to ply for 5 hours per day through the Mayem village till such time that the remaining 5,900 metric ton ore is transported. However, Court has emphasized that this ore transportation also will not be permitted till such time that real time ore transportation mechanism is set up in the village including 2 more pollution monitoring stations and 2 CCTV cameras with monitoring mechanism at the local village panchayat. Court was not happy with the real time monitoring of ore transportation by the authorities, informed Mayem villagers Counsel Norma Alvares. Court has permitted mining company to transport 50 trucks per day as opposed to 230 trucks which were plying though the village roads since Jan 8. The transportation timings have been set as 10 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm. The court has also directed that once the remaining ore is transported there should be no fresh transportation of ore through village roads. The court asked the mining companies to comply with the memorandum of ministry of environment and forest guidelines about transportation of ore through village roads.
The mining company was permitted by Directorate of Mines on Dec 28 to transport 26,000 metric ton ore from the Poira mine. Company started transportation of the ore on Jan 8,2024 and has already transported major chunk of the ore with only 5,900 metric ton remaining to be transported.
