PANAJI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) fined the Government of Goa Rs 5 lakh for failing to submit standard operating procedure to fill up open quarries. The Goa government came up with a proposal to fill up the open mines with municipal waste. The NGT rejected the proposal calling it a ‘preposterous suggestion’.
The NGT’s directions for the government to fill up the quarries came post deaths of four boys in Pernem area last month, who drowned in a water-filled laterite quarry. After the deaths, the Goa Paryavaran Sangharsh Samiti approached the tribunal and alleged criminal negligence by the State government’s mines department.