The recent Office Memorandum (OM) issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFF&CC) laying down procedures for permitting construction activity under the 2019 CRZ notification could spell disaster for a small coastal State like Goa. This is because it empowers the panchayat to be the licensing body for self-dwelling units up to 300 square metres of built-up areas within CRZ areas. Interestingly, projects in the CRZ areas which do not come within the Environment Impact Assessment 2006 notification will now be handled by the State Planning Development Authority.
It appears that the Coastal Zone Management Authority, whose mandate was to take measures for protecting and improving the quality of the coastal environment and preventing, abating and controlling environmental pollution, has been diluted, drastically reducing its role in coastal management.
The parallel question is, why clip the wings of CZMAs, a body considered a guardian of the coastal environment? How could an authority, whose contentions have even been upheld in the Supreme Court earlier, be rendered powerless without sound reasoning? If we recall, the Maradu apartments in Kerala, which were ordered demolition in May 2019, were razed after the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority red-flagged the project for violation of CRZ rules.
The MoEFF&CC memo, however, appears suspicious because it has been sent to the coastal States without any interventions or public debates. Crucial decisions such as these that have a bearing on the State's landscape should have been put in the public domain for discussions and suggestions or sent back for reconsideration. The environment is a subject on the concurrent list, and there should have been a Centre-State interaction.
More importantly, the office memorandum goes against the grain and preamble of the CRZ notification, whose purpose is to conserve and sustain the development of the coastal areas besides protecting the livelihoods of coastal communities. We now have a probable scenario where floodgates of development within the CRZ will be thrown open, leading to congestion through rampant construction without any concern for environmental balance.
While monitoring mechanisms have been done away with, panchayats are given extraordinary powers when they have no wherewithal to replicate the role of the GCZMA. Even if panchayats are engaged, the process of coastal assessment cannot be done away with against a looming threat of 300 square metre dwellings crowding CRZ areas leading to manipulation and fragmentation of more extensive holdings. The consequences are drastic.
The Centre's attempt to amend the 2019 CRZ notification is baffling and finds no meaning in the larger scheme of things of the State unless we are made to believe that this is about the empowerment of local bodies. Against the lack of assessment, there is a suspicion of a hidden agenda.
While it is uncertain whether the memorandum can stand the scrutiny of law, the State government, instead of meekly accepting it, must factor in the impact on Goa's coastline and move swiftly to guard against uncontrolled exploitation of the coast.
