PANAJI
Raising serious concern over Goa’s persistent failure to finalise the coastal zone management plan (CZMP), the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has directed the State to further expedite the process to finalise the crucial plan based on CRZ notification 2019.
The State has missed yet another deadline of January 31 to complete the much-delayed plan as it had assured the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to finalise the plan by January end.
The MoEF&CC had last month called for a meeting to review the status of CZMP and Integrated Island Management Plans (IIMP), with Goa failing to complete both. Interestingly, Goa gave a miss to the meeting chaired by MoEF&CC (CRZ) Joint Secretary Rajat Agarwal. The State failed to send its representative for the meeting.
“Goa SCZMA was advised to expedite the preparation of the draft CZMP in line with the CRZ notification 2019,” stated the minutes of the meeting.
Thiruvananthapuram-based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) is yet to submit the draft plan to the State.
“Goa remains governed by the CRZ Notification of 2011, as it failed to update its CZMP. According to the Ministry, State reliance on outdated regulations have forced them not to grant any more developmental permissions based on CRZ 2011 notification. State is now vulnerable to unregulated development. The submission was seriously viewed by NGT,” MoEF had informed NGT recently.
There has been a delay of almost five years since the CRZ notification 2019 was notified -- the Rules and Regulations of which are currently not applicable to Goa in the absence of the plan.
The coastal State is already on NGT radar for missing out several deadlines. State has already missed out the October 31, 2023 deadline set by NCZMA. State had later sought time till May 31, 2024 to complete the plan however, it failed to meet that too.
