It comes as a major surprise that the State administration, which huffed and puffed to barely meet the deadline to finalise the Coastal Zone Management Plan 2011, is yet to incorporate three crucial sub-plans in the CZMP, almost a year after the plan was notified in September 2022. While Sea Turtle Nesting and Habitat Management Plans are incorporated, the Fishermen Community Plan, Khazan Land Management Plan and the Mangrove Management Plan are yet to get the State government's approval.
These plans are an integral part of the CZMP, without which it will be incomplete, which is why we fail to understand why the State government has not brought closure to some crucial segments of the plan. For example, Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSM), Chennai, was asked to prepare maps on a scale of 1:4000 after it was found that the original maps prepared were on a macro scale of 1:25000. The idea of revising the scale was to get visibility of structures and villages on the maps. However, the 1:4000 scale maps, although ready, are yet to be notified, raising a suspicion that those at the helm could be misusing discretionary powers.
Another important aspect that needed attention was the anomalies in the flawed demarcation of fishing wards, which are within 500 metres of the CRZ, in some cases, like Benaulim, are shown 2 km off the coast. Goa had sought an amendment to the Coastal plan, allowing traditional fishermen to carry out various commercial activities within the CRZ areas and to ease the no-development zone besides relaxing reconstruction norms. However, the Fishermen Community Plan has not been notified yet, leaving a lot of uncertainty.
Thirdly, Goa had lost a piece of paradise in the coastal plan, having skipped 50-odd lakh square metres of sand dunes. The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, which had undertaken a resurvey on these dunes, had confirmed the error. Surprisingly, the State failed to incorporate the omission and the plans were notified without those dunes. The question is whether the State has bid goodbye to these coastal highlights. The coastline plan will be a picture of contrast without these dunes, and it is better late than never that the government makes genuine efforts to salvage them.
The hurry in 2022 was understandable against the deadlines, and the omissions and corrections may be justified in that context. However, the question is, why rush into the 2019 plan when there is such a lot of unfinished business in the 2011 plan? Rectifying the errors and contradictions of the past will be difficult once we have a new Plan in place, and there is every chance that citizens could be big losers in the process.
The irony is that the State hardly takes deadlines and timelines seriously. When the CZMP 2011 was notified in September 2022, Minister Nilesh Cabral claimed that work on the 2019 plan would be a breeze and completed in a year. Almost a year now, the preparatory work has yet to begin.
It is extremely important that before we launch into the CZMP 2019, the State government looks back and undertakes course correction on the failures of the 2011 plan.
