the goan I network
PANAJI
Even as stakeholders and government authorities alike are clueless on the applicability of the new Coastal Regulation Zone notification approved by the Union Cabinet on Friday to Goa, the development has triggered intense debate and greens claim almost the entire Goa coast will be eligible.
The moot area of contention on whether it applies to Goa or not is the population density criteria which the notification specifies is necessary to shrink the no-development zone (NDZ) area from the existing 200 metres to now 50 metres from the High Tide Line.
For rural areas on the coast with a density of 2161 population per square kilometre, the notification reduces the NDZ from 200 metres to 50 metres from the HTL. The regulation however does not give any indication of the reference area on the basis of which ‘population density’ will be computed.
In Calangute village for instance, whether the population density of a particular ward, the village, the taluka, the district or the whole State will be considered to decide the applicability of the new regulation is unclear in the notification approved by the Union Cabinet.
A senior government bureaucrat familiar with the matter, meanwhile, told The Goan that the issue would be open to interpretation any way, going by the draft notification.
“We will however have to wait for the publication of the notification in the Central Gazette to know for sure,” the top bureaucrat said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the government.
In the worst case scenario, almost the entire 105-km coastline qualifies to seek the concessions of the new draft notification, the official added.
Environmentalists and green activists in Goa, meanwhile, have badgered the Union government for the dilution of the environmental law.
Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott, a collective of traditional fishermen of Goa, has termed the notification a “blatant violation” of section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 under which the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification was issued.
Olencio Simoes of the GRE said: “Even after sending more than one lakh objections from all coastal States to the draft CRZ notification 2018, the Central government has approved it. The notification will be a dead-end for the traditional fishermen in Goa as the 105-km coastline is used for landing sites and to park canoes and other fishing equipment.”
The new draft regulation reduces NDZ to 50 metres and in case of islands to 20 metres, which means the entire coastline will be concretised.
“We will lose all our beaches. Already 20% (25-kilometres) of our 105-km coastline is eroded and now the rest will be completely ravaged,” Olencio said in a statement jointly issued with GRE president Agnelo Rodrigues.
Strangely, the notification also does not recognise or make any reference to natural barriers in coastal areas such as sand dunes.
The new CRZ draft notification was widely debated in Goa for its adverse impacts on the local ecology and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had clarified that its population density criteria would exclude most of Goa’s coastline from its purview.
That seems uncertain now, and the greens are of the view that the whole of Goa’s coastline will be open to claim the benefits that the amendments would incur - enhanced economic activity in an already exploited region.
The new notification has diluted many stringent restrictions of the CRZ 2011 notification and large number of cases pending before courts will collapse.
According to official data furnished by the government during the monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly there are over 500 cases of violations under the CRZ 2011 notification pending adjudication before various authorities and courts. In addition, over a thousand cases of CRZ violations are pending before Collectors of each of the two districts of the State. The fate of over 80 per cent of these cases will hold no water after the new notification is enforced.
Another significant concession in the new notification is for temporary tourism infrastructure, particularly for “basic amenities” like shacks, toilet blocks, changing rooms, drinking water facilities etc. These will now be allowed in NDZ of CRZ-III areas at a distance of just 10 metres from HTL.
