PANAJI
The Goa government has approached the National Green Tribunal seeking additional time to complete the Goa Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) and sought that the deadline be extended by six months.
The NGT had earlier given the state a deadline of August 31 to complete the plan, which was initially supposed to be completed back in 2014.
In its application, the GCZMA indicating that it was still processing the thousands of objections and suggestions it has received which will require another sixty days and the process of sending the changes to the NCSCM (National Centre for Scientific Coastal Management) and finally to the MoEF&CC will take another sixty days.
“Pursuant to the notice of public hearing and after conducting the public hearing, the GCZMA received about 3493 objections and suggestions for North Goa and about 4016 for South Goa,” the GCZMA said.
The GCZMA has set up two committees known as the HTL/Sand dunes committee, which as its name suggests will verify suggestions and objections related to the HTL and sand dunes and another related to mangroves which has a similar function but with regards to mangroves.
“The committee for HTL/sand dunes has completed inspection in respect of 89 objections so far. The committee of mangroves for North and South Goa also started site inspections with respect to the objections/suggestions received taluka wise and scheduled their site inspections till the end of September 2021. Similarly the WRD (Water Resources Department) and Fisheries Department has also started their site inspections scheduled in the coming weeks,” the GCZMA said in their application.
“The South Goa mangroves committee carried out an inspection of Quepem taluka on August 26 and have inspected four objections and suggestions. Further the mangroves committee has fixed inspection in Canacona in respect of seven objections on September 21. In North Goa, the mangroves committee has inspected 13 objections and suggestions in Bardez, on August 31 and five objections and suggestions also in Bardez on September 21. Further the committee has inspected 16 objections in Pernem on September 3 and eight in Bicholim and has suggested ground truthing in the upcoming weeks,” the GCZMA.
Similarly, the Water Resources Department the Fisheries Department and the Town and Country Planning Department are also processing the various suggestions and objections received according to the decision of the GCZMA to deal with each different class of objection.
“In view of the facts above, the whole process could not be completed by August 31 in terms of an earlier order passed by this tribunal. The GCZMA will require an additional 60 days to complete the entire exercise of physical verification and grounding truthing all the objections and suggestions which will be forwarded to the NCSCM for finalization and verification. Once the CZMP is received by the state the same will be sent to the MoEF for approval and final notification which will require 60 days,” the GCZMA said.
In the light of the facts and circumstances as stated above, the present application is being filed seeking an extension of six months to complete the process and finalize the CZMP of the State of Goa and notify the same while placing on record the facts and circumstances which has led to the delay in finalizing the CZMP.
