Goa Ayurveda college yet to pay Rs 1.2 crore penalty for late EC

Panaji: The Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (Goa-SEIAA) has granted additional time to the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) at Dhargalim, Pernem, to explain why it failed to pay the pending penalty amount imposed for violations during the construction of the institute.

The accountant general (audit) for Goa state, through a letter dated Feb 3, pointed out to the Goa-SEIAA that the AIIA was required to pay a penalty equivalent to 1% of the total project cost, amounting to Rs 1.3 crore based on the project cost of Rs 135 crore. In addition, it was also required to pay 0.25% of the turnover earned during the period of violation for obtaining ex-post facto environmental clearance for the project.

However, it was noted that the AIIA has so far paid only Rs 23 lakh of the total penalty amount ordered.

The audit observations found that Rs 1.2 crore of the penalty amount is yet to be recovered from the project proponent.

Accordingly, the Goa-SEIAA had called the AIIA to submit its response during a hearing held on March 25. Representatives of the AIIA appeared before the authority and sought additional time to submit clarifications, following which the Goa-SEIAA granted the institute 15 days to make its submissions.

The penalty was imposed on the AIIA in 2022.

The Goa-SEIAA had received an application for environmental clearance for the AIIA project in 2021, but when a team visited the Dhargalim site for inspection, violations were noticed. It was found that construction of the project was already underway and that environmental clearance was being sought much later.

The Goa-SEIAA had therefore observed that environmental damage had already taken place.

It then decided that ex-post facto approval could be granted to the AIIA, subject to payment of a penalty amounting to 1% of the project development cost.

The foundation stone for the All India Institute of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy was laid by then Ayush minister Shripad Naik in November 2018. However, environmental clearances were sought more than two years later.