PANAJI
The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has finally been constituted with the notification being issued by the Ministry for Environment. Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on Tuesday.
Environment Secretary Arun Kumar Mishra, IAS, will head the body with the new Environment Director Dr Geeta Nagvekar its member secretary.
It has four other 'expert members', one representative of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and six ex-officio members who are all heads of State Government departments.
The four expert members are: Margao based Ganesh Velip, a retired PWD Executive Engineer, Curchorem based Ms Radha B Rao, a Structural Consultant, Dr Dilip B Arolkar, the Principal of Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao and Sushant S Naik, Principal Scientist at NIO, Dona Paula.
The six ex-officio members are: Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), the Directors of Tourism, Fisheries, Panchayats, the Principal Chief Engineer of WRD and Chief Engineer of WRD.
The representative of Ponda-based M/s Study and Awareness of Wildlife and Environment is the thirteenth member.
The GCZMA will have its headquarters in the capital city and have a quorum of one-third (five) of its total strength for all its meetings.
Any of the expert members are mandated to recuse themselves from a meeting if a project for which they have rendered consultancy services is being considered, the notification states.
The issue of reconstituting the crucial GCZMA had been pending before the MoEF&CC for several weeks now.
The crucial watchdog of irregularities and violations in the ecologically sensitive Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas had overrun its term which ended on October 31 and was technically without its prime powers.
Mishra and the member-secretary, however continued to hold the fort and discharge routine administrative functions of the Authority in the interim.
At least two judicial authorities -- National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Bombay High Court -- had recently recommended that MoEF&CC constitute the GCZMA urgently.
