The Goa govern ment has asked its pollution control board to find out the source of the tar balls phenomenon on the state beach es. The board is also expected to recommend how to end this polluting menace. “I have asked the State Pollution Control Board to study the real source of tar balls. We are studying how to dispense them off, how to ecologically get rid of them,“ Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar said after his meeting with environment minister Prakash Javadekar. The tar ball is an “annual phenomenon“ which happen as many boats and big ships wash their tanks some 5-10 km off the Goa coast. “Because of changing currents, they (discharged material) come to the shore,“ said Parrikar. Asked whether he would take the Centre's help to deal with such aquatic pollutants, he said the state pollution control board was capable of handling the situation. The TOI had highlighted the problem of tar balls, flag ging how it was polluting Goa's beaches and affecting tourism in the state. Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik had recent ly asked the environment ministry to take steps to save Goa's beaches from tar balls. In a letter to Javadekar, he pkjh ds ncko esa er jgsa] fuxjkuh fo had said the government should take steps to ensure hat crude oil ships refrain rom de-ballasting at sea. Naik had said he raised the ssue in Rajya Sabha some ime back and his doubts came true that ships carrying crude oil cleaned their tanks off the Goa coast disregardkx ls feydj dgsaA ng international norms.