Team Herald
PANJIM: The draft Goa Coastal Zone Management Plan will be kept open for public suggestions and objections for a period of 15 to 30 days in March, before it is finalised.
National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) – the nodal agency – has been directed to submit the draft report latest by February-end. The NCSCM team was in Goa earlier this week, and was provided with additional documents, with regards to the shoreline by Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA).
“We have asked NCSCM to submit the draft report before February end,” sources said. “The report will be kept open for public suggestions and objections before finalising it. The draft will also be forwarded to the panchayats concerned for inputs. We have to submit the final plan to MoEF&CC before April 30,” sources said.
National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed all the States to submit their respective CZMP to MoEF&CC by April 30 and pending finalisation the States have been asked not to issue environment clearances (ECs) for development projects in prohibited-cum-restricted areas.
of the coastal regulation zone (CRZ).
The tribunal has also granted three months, till July 31, to MoEF&CC to finalise the CZMP for States covering the entire coast.
The report will cover shoreline management, conservation management, pollution management, tourism and resource and livelihood management.
It has also proposed to identify and notify fishing villages, wherein all foreshore facilities required for fishing and fisheries allied activities would be permitted by Panchayats in the areas under CRZ.
The process to draft GCZMP had begun in February 2017, after the old plan dated 1996 expired in January 2017.
