PANAJI
The stage is set for the crucial public hearings on the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs) for both the districts -- North and South Goa -- on Thursday.
The public hearings are expected to be stormy with Goa’s greens suspicious of the agenda of the governments, both State and Central, in dealing with 105-kilometer coastline, vis-a-vis current and future development proposals.
The public hearings are being conducted by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) at the SGPDA grounds in South Goa and at the Parade grounds, Campal in North Goa.
Some of the contentious issues likely to see heated challenges to the CZMPs are the mapping of khazan lands, sand dunes and the demarcation of the perenially controversial High Tide Line, a crucial reference line for implementation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules.
The State government, meanwhile, has officially designated three of its senior civil service officers to manage the proceedings of the public hearings.
Srinet Kotwale will hold the fort at the Parade grounds in Campal while Agnelo Fernandes and Johnson Fernandes will oversee the process at the SGPDA grounds in Margao.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has mandated that the GCZMA conduct and complete the entire public consultation process and finalize the CZMPs for the entire State by August 31 this year.
Earlier this week on Monday, the NGT had also dismissed the review petition of Goa Foundation which had sought that the Tribunal extend by six more months its August 31 deadline for finalising the Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMP).
CZMP public hearings held in March this year had to be aborted after multiple lacunae were found in the base drafts and Chennai based National Center for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) was tasked to re-draft the plans.
