PANAJI
The Goa government has appointed three State-level panels in a bid to propel and scale-up projects for adaptation of climate change under the State and national action plans for climate change (SAPCC) and (NAPCC).
The first panel -- State Governing Council -- is headed by the Chief Minister and another, the State level Steering Committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary. The Environment Secretary heads a third body, the Climate Change Cell.
The Chief Minister headed State Governing Council, also has two expert members -- Dr Lidita Khandeparkar who is the principal scientist at the NIO and Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, who is assistant professor at the BITS Pilani Goa campus.
Other members of the State Governing Council are the Environment Minister, the Chief Secretary and Secretaries to the Goa government for forest, environment, fisheries, agriculture, transport, water resources, town and country planning, finance, revenue, non-conventional energy, principal conservator of forests and the member-secretary of the Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB) who is designated as ‘nodal officer’.
The notification of the State Governing Council states that the Environment Minister and the Chief Secretary, who will be its co-chairpersons, will have a three-year term and meet at least once a year.
The second body, which is the State level Steering Committee and is headed by the Chief Secretary is a 31-member body packed with Secretary-level bureaucrats and heads of departments.
Secretaries of Environment, Forest, Health, Transport, agriculture, revenue, non-conventional energy and finance are its members. Several heads of departments as also the member secretaries of GSBB, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), Goa Energy Development Authority (GEDA) and the two district collectors are also on this panel.
The third body, the Climate Change Cell is headed by the Environment Secretary and comprises eight other official members including the two district collectors and member secretaries of GSPCB, GCZMA, GEDA and GSBB. It also has three advisers -- including a representative of the NABARD and NABCONs besides the representative of the European Union in India who looks after the Goa region.
