THE GOAN NETWORK
CORTALIM
The National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) and Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) have criticised the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for planning to amend the Coastal Regularization Zone (CRZ) by reducing the 'no development buffer zone' to merely 50 mtrs.
“The current dispensation is following in the footsteps of the past corrupt government and is trying its best to dilute the CRZ norms. This devious amendment is planned to protect and encourage the interests of the hotel mafia,” stated NFF Secretary and GRE Joint General Secretary Olencio Simoes in a press note.
“The amendment by no stretch of imagination is in the interest of traditional dwellers, especially the traditional fishermen, but on the contrary will totally uproot the traditional occupants from the coast. The irony of the situation is that departments like MoEF are proving to be non-environment friendly departments,” stated Simoes.
Simoes claimed that if the government was serious about legalizing the homes of fishermen, it should have immediately constituted a district-level committee. “However, the government took an easy path of legalizing all other illegal commercial activities," he added.
800 CRZ violations during
BJP rule, asserts GRE
THE GOAN NETWORK
CORTALIM
Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) President Agnelo Rodrigues has alleged that over 800 cases of CRZ violations have been reported during the BJP tenure.
“Of these, nearly 500 cases are related to violations by hotel industries and building lobbies. Nearly 57 percent of the CRZ violations in Goa have occurred in the Morjim belt itself,” said Rodrigues in a press note.
Rodrigues pointed out that a structure at Ashvem has come up in the famous Olive Ridley turtle nesting site. “The site is a protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. This amendment would allow for loopholes, thereby sparking a spree of construction activities along the coast, endangering the marine and coastal ecosystems of the State.”
