the goan I network
PANAJI
The controversial drafts of the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) will come up for scrutiny at the first of a series of taluka-level consultations facilitated by the Environment Department on Friday in
Pernem.
Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral said the Pernem consultation on Friday and subsequent exercises in other talukas slated to be held on weekends up to August 3, are additional and distinct from the statutory district-level public hearings necessary to approve the draft plans.
The district hearings were earlier fixed for July 7 in both North and South Goa by the respective Collectors but cancelled and indefinitely deferred by the State government after Goa’s green NGOs and civil society, besides legislators raised a hue and cry over the glaring errors in the drafts prepared by the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM).
Cabral meanwhile told the media at a press conference in his Legislative Assembly Complex chamber that many of the apprehensions expressed by some of the NGOs were unfounded and the NCSCM had prepared the draft plans strictly following the guidelines laid down by the MoEF and Climate Change Ministry.
“It is not true that fishermen community was not consulted. There is record that several representatives of the fishing community were party to the exercise carried out by the NCSCM and they have even signed documents to record their presence,” Cabral said.
He however said that there is truth in the allegations that fishing villages and fish breeding areas have not been identified but assured that this will be done in due course.
“The taluka-level consultations are not a replacement for the statutory public hearings which were postponed. This is an exercise being conducted by the Environment department so that people can raise fresh anomalies,” Cabral said, adding that to protect Goa’s uniqueness and the Khazan ecosystem, he is willing to go the extra mile and even petition the Centre for special dispensation of the prescribed rule book for HTL demarcation.
On charges being made that the NCSCM prepared draft CZMPs and its maps had not shown several structures along the coast, Cabral said it was not in the scope of the CRZ Notification, 2011.
The tasks before NCSCM in preparing the drafts included demarcating HTL and the Hazard line, marking of the sand dunes, mapping eco-sensitive zones and the various CRZ-I and II areas, he added.
Cabral also urged the people to attend the taluka level consultations and contribute to the exercise. Resource persons from the Environment Department, GCZMA and experts will be present to explain technicalities, he added.
