the goan I network
PANAJI
The State government on Monday faces scathing criticism for meekly giving its nod to the Centre’s draft Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification ignoring the say of Goa’s local communities and pro-environment lobbies.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have both expressed shock over the government’s reported nod to the Centre’s “draconian draft”.
While AAP called the government’s decision high-handed and unilateral, Goa Pradesh Congress president, Girish Chodankar said the ruling BJP and its alliance partners were out to sell Goa piece by piece.
“We strongly object to the blanket approval by the
BJP-led government and demand its immediate withdrawal,” Chodankar said in a statement.
He said, the government is all out to please big industrialists and hoteliers at the expense of the fishing community and those dependent on the fisheries economy.
Reducing the CRZ to 50 metres will spell doom for the sand dunes which is a natural protection from any calamites arisng from the sea, including rising sea levels and tsunamis, Chodankar adds.
AAP meanwhile said the new draft dilutes all provisions of the existing CRZ laws which are crucial for protection of the already heavily burdened coastline of Goa.
A major decision such as this needed to be discussed in the affected panchayats and local bodies to give people the opportunity to understand the impact of such drastic modification of existing coastal regulations, AAP’s Siddharth Karapurkar said in a statement.
The government’s request to ‘maintain traditional activities’ is just a fig leaf to cover-up its pre-decided intent to give the draft its nod, Karapurkar added.
Karapurkar also castigated the member-secretary of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority for the
claim that discussions with citizen groups and affected people were held when no such attempt was genuinely made.
