MARGAO
Citizens, beware. If you are bracing up to throng the Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on March 7 for the public hearing for South Goa to register your protest and objections against the controversial Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), don’t be surprised if the authorities cap the number of participants at the hearing.
That’s not all. Sources said the authorities may also cap the time for each of the participants at the hearing, with officials in the know saying each participant may get just five minutes to speak.
If sources are to be believed, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is being put in place, not just to cap the number of participants at the public hearing, but to restrict the entry only to the participants registering for the hearing.
The Ravindra Bhavan auditorium, which has a capacity to accommodate 1000-odd audience at any given time, is being considered for the March 7 public hearing for South Goa. However, the authorities are in the process of putting a SOP in place, proposing to utilize only 50 per cent hall capacity in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
When The Goan called up the Director, Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) Dashrat Redkar to shed light on the South Goa Public hearing at the Ravindra Bhavan, he said the department of Environment is going ahead with the hearing on the scheduled date and time.
He, however, hastened to add that the South Goa district authorities will take a call how to go about in conducting the hearing, “There was a petition filed in the High Court on the public hearing. As of now, the Court had not barred the department from holding the public hearing”, Redkar said, while saying that the department is going ahead with the planned scheduled on March 7.
When asked how the department will go about the matter since the CZMP affects dozens of villages, besides towns in South Goa, Redkar shot back saying the district authorities will put a system in place.
When The Goan contacted Additional district Collector, South Surendra Naik to shed light on the public hearing arrangements, he said an SOP will be put in place not only to cap the number of participants, but the participants will be granted entry only if they are registered and be allowed to make his point within five minutes. “The department of environment will come out with a schedule as well as the SOP for the public hearing, giving time to the participants to register for the hearing”, he added.
Citizens as well as the village panchayats have been raising objections to the CZMP submitted to the local bodies, on the plea that suggestions and objections proposed by the local bodies have found no mention.
In fact, the village gram sabhas as well as the special meetings called by the panchayats have been vociferous in their opposition to the CZMP for their respective villages, with almost all the local bodies demanding rescheduling of the public hearing on March 7 to hearings at the panchayat level.
