PANAJI
The Central government has directed Goa to complete the entire process of finalisation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2019 within next three months, even as the State has sought time till January 2025 to put in place the new coastal plan based on CRZ 2019 notification.
Goa has already missed two deadlines -- October 2023 and May 2024, to finalise CZMP 2019, as set by the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
During a meeting held in Delhi between the Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, State Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira and others, the former directed the State to ensure that the CZMP 2019 is completed within three months.
The Minister has also asked its officials to issue necessary directions to the Chennai based agency National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) to provide the required 1:4000 scale maps to Goa at the earliest, within a fortnight, for initiating the process of drafting CZMP 2019.
"State has requested time till January 2025 to complete the plan, but Ministry has granted us time to complete the process within three months, including conduct of public hearing," sources said.
In an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), last month, Goa's Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel had said that the Thrivananthpuram-based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), appointed to draft CZMP 2019 has informed that the coastal plan would be completed by January 2025.
There has been a delay of almost five years since the CRZ notification 2019 was notified -- the Rules and Regulations of which are currently not applicable to Goa in the absence of the plan.
State had first missed out October 31, 2023 deadline set by the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA), following which the MoEF&CC stopped granting permissions under CRZ 2011 for developmental projects in the State.
State had later sought time till May 31, 2024 to complete the plan; however in the absence of updated CZMP 2011 based on 1:4000 scale, the process of new plan was halted.
