the goan I network
MARGAO
In a development coming close on the heels of the decision to reject the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs), the Goa government has rejected the report submitted by the Review Committee constituted by the state Forest department on the identification of private forests, with the government finding fault with the criteria adopted by the panel to compile the report.
The government action comes days before the state Forest department was scheduled to file a report before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Delhi. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Forest Minister Vijai Sardesai and the Advocate General are believed to have given their say before the report was rejected by the government.
Sources in the know say the government has directed senior officials to file an affidavit before the NGT in respect of the government decision to reject the report.
The Chief Minister has further issued directions to set up a new review committee with the brief to identify and demarcate the private forest land with the Sawant-Karapurkar findings at the base.
The government has rejected the report of the review committee on two grounds, pertaining to the methodology adopted by the panel to achieve the terms of reference concerning the Sawant and Karapurkar Committees. Besides, the government has taken cognizance of the fact that no public hearing was conducted by the review committee by calling the people whose land was identified as private forest.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is believed to have directed the officials to comply with the criteria laid down by the government in toto and not by Stratified Random Sampling.
While confirming the government decision during a media interaction when he was questioned over the Coastal Zone Management
Plans (CZMPs), deputy Chief Minister, Vijai Sardesai, who also holds the Forest portfolio, said that the government has decided to reject the report compiled by the review committee on grounds that the panel had adopted the Stratified Random sampling method without government approval. He further said the fixation of a 5 per cent sampling intensify for field verification methodology was not accepted since it was wrong to assumptive in respect of demarcation of a certain land as forest.
What’s more, the Forest Minister pointed out that the review panel held no public consultation and neither gave any opportunity to the land owners why their land is being identified as a private forest. “The principle of natural justice demands that the land owners ought to have been given a hearing and explained why and how their land will be demarcated as a private forest. There was no such exercise conducted by the review panel. The land owners were never explained of the methodology adopted by the government to identify their land as a private forest”, he added.
Sources said that soon after taking over the reigns of the Forest portfolio, Sardesai was believed to have gone through the report compiled by the Review Committee and put up a note to the Chief Minister after detecting a host of discrepancies in the methodology adopted by the panel.
