the goan I network
PANAJI
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday termed the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP) a “fraud on the people” and demanded that the voice of the people be heard while preparing the plans.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquartres, AAP Goa convenor Elvis Gomes said that the Environment Minister was conducting a ‘mindless’ exercise by holding public hearings in different talukas against the will of the people.
Said Gomes, “The so called public consultations at the taluka level is a contradiction in itself as the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA) has referred the objections and suggestions of the people to the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) in Chennai. Until the plan is drawn afresh, there is no point in holding public consultations based on the old plan which was rejected by the people.”
Reading out the excerpts from the notice dated July 11, 2019 issued by the Director of Environment, Gomes said that the notice did not spell out anywhere that a minister would preside over such public hearings, and that his presence could intimidate citizens from expressing their views.
AAP leader Ramiro Mascarenhas who is at the forefront of the peoples’ movement against CZMPs said that Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral had already admitted that the government did not have the required data upon which the CZMP could be based. Mascarenhas questioned why the CZMP was sought to be pushed against the will of the people. “The CZMP is relying on 1971 base maps. Let them come to the people and draw the plan instead of doing it in the corporate offices,” he said.
