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Four scientists to probe pollution angle in Meta Strips case

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Four top scientists will probe whether the Goa-based Meta Strips Limited is causing pollution. The company is a copper-processing unit set up with Spanish collaboration by Sushil Khaitan and the House of Jindals.

The Anti-Meta Strips Citizens Action Committee, or AMSCAC, which has forced the Goa government to temporarily close the Rs 2.5-billion unit following violent agitation, has now accepted the proposal of having scientists look into the pollution angle.

"We have no faith in this government. Let them prepare a report and make it public," said Nelson Fernandes, the AMSCAC secretary. The agitators are still sticking to their demand of scrapping the project.

Even Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha agreed to make the document public. "Let us not talk about whether the findings of the report would be binding upon everybody. Let the government decide first," he said.

The scientists who will look into the issue are B B Dhar, Director, Research, Association of Indian Universities, Delhi; R P Moghe, senior scientist, process development division, National Chemical Laboratories, Pune; R Sarin, deputy director, National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur; and S Premchand, head of the non-ferrous process division, Metallurgical Laboratories, Jamshedpur.

The Goa government has accepted all the four names suggested by Raghunath Mashelkar, director general of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, or CSIR.

The four experts are expected to prepare a report 10 days after beginning the work.

The AMSCAC, which has been agitating with the active support of the local Church for over a year now on the issue by mobilising people of four villages near port town of Vasco, has also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, enquiry into the alleged fraud and illegalities committed in getting the project approved.

"I do not mind regularising any project which is not detrimental to the health of the society," said Sardinha.

While admitting that no terms of reference has been prepared for the committee to prepare a report, Sardinha said the experts would only decide whether it is a polluting unit or not.

ALSO SEE

Goans stage violent protests against Meta Strips

Violence escalates in Goa; prohibitory orders passed

Goa controversy continues to rage

Goa peaceful, Meta Strips dispute blows over

Business

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