Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa gave Pilgao residents a significant reprieve by prohibiting the nighttime transportation of iron ore in the village and directing the mining company to move no more than 40 trucks per hour through the village in accordance with the State-prepared Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
The Court dismissed M/s Vedanta Limited’s miscellaneous civil application (MCA) and ordered the mining corporation to provide an undertaking that it would not conduct any nighttime transportation through the community.
The Court issued a warning that the mining firm and any government will be harshly penalized if transportation occurs at night authority keeping an eye on the operations at night.
In its MCA, M/s Vedanta Ltd. requested an order allowing it to utilize the route authorized by the Environment Clearance (EC) and instructed the State authorities to either resolve all objections or enable them to use the alternate route under the same conditions and circumstances.
The corporation was directed to provide an order allowing it to use the alternate route for transportation by the Bench, which was made up of Justices M S Karnik and Nivedita P Mehta. The business produced a December 11, 2024, order.
Senior Adv Norma Alvares, who represented the Pilgao villagers during the hearing, stated after the hearing that the High Court declined to get involved in the case because of the ruling that was made in June of last year when the Mulakh Khajan Farmers Association and Goa Foundation filed a PIL writ petition.
“I believe that we have succeeded because the mining company is unable to transport ore at night and the order is to transport only 40 trucks per hour during the day, not 254 trucks per hour,” Adv. Alvares stated.
