PANAJI
With the hearing held on Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party leaders have echoed that the current CZMP draft will prove to be a death blow.
AAP leader Cecile Rodrigues slammed the government over the CZMP meeting which was held haphazardly in North Goa.
"We need to raise our issues because of our coastal belt. The port limits is showing right up till the governor’s house, where there are a lot of houses that have not been marked. In addition to this, people have their boathouse, their own houses which are not marked on the map," said Cecile.
"The demarcation misses a lot of information and most of the coastal belt going under the port limits will destroy the fishing community and not just for now but for years to come the beauty of the coastal belt and Goa will be destroyed by this plan."
AAP leader Valmiki Naik brought out the feature that AAP is going to take ahead for the CZMP public hearing is the CRZ plan which was implemented with objectives to protect the fishermen community and also the coastal environment, which the current CZMP has violated.
He further added that the party will pit across various points through the legal process that includes the general points, Taluka level points, constituency level and coastal level.
Naik said that the meeting was conducted illegally, with the state battling the pandemic and the government calling a huge gathering for a public meeting. Secondly, the weather is rainy and the condition out is very pathetic to enter or exit.
AAP leaders have actively taken part in this meeting in the north and south Goa, and will put forth all the petitions of the people and the points concerning the coastal belt and the environment of Goa, he concluded.
Along with Valmiki Naik, Manuel Cardozo who was also present for the public meeting in the north said that the meeting started with many people still in the queue to enter the premises to listen to the hearing, where most of the important presentation was missed by the public waiting outside. He called it total harassment by the BJP government and the proposed plan to be full of errors.
Party Vice President Pratima Coutinho expressed her opinion outside the south SGPDA Ground where hundreds of people were waiting in a long queue to enter for the public hearing.
Coutinho said the registration process should have started three days before the event to avoid such long queues or have multiple entries to make it easy for the public to enter.
Partima also questioned the government on the lines of the Covid norms saying that the said meeting has violated the norms of the state-level curfew, which can be the cause for the third wave in Goa.
Venzy Viegas lambasted the government on the notifications under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which had procedures for conducting public hearings but were violated.
He also stated that there were many senior citizens in line and elderly women waiting in the queue which shows the government is not bothered about the seniors and their health.
