PANJIM: As the National Green Tribunal (NGT) sends its final ultimatum to Goa over the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) finalisation, the State government has marked November 13 as the deadline to inform its decision with regards to the plan to Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). The tribunal has granted time till November 15 for the State to submit its plan.
Accordingly, the Department of Environment has prepared a plan of action to expedite the process, as per which the final date for submission of suggestions and objections on the draft plan, prepared by the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) is on Saturday, September 21. The public hearing for the project is proposed on October 5.
Director Environment Johnson Fernandes in a letter to Director NCSCM has submitted its action plan for finalisation of CZMP. “The timeline has been prepared so that the CZMP for the State of Goa is finalised as per CRZ notification 2011,” he said.
As per this, all suggestions and objections received from various organisations, individuals, NGOs, etc will be tabulated by September 21.
The department will submit the recommendations of Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to NCSCM for further action to accept or reject it on September 24.
By October 1, the NCSCM has been asked to submit the fresh or revised consolidated village wise plans in 1:4000 scale by incorporating the suggestions and objections as given by GCZMA.
By October 3, the environment department will dispatch village-wise plans at designated places like panchayats, municipalities, block development offices, district collectors, etc for public scrutiny.
The advertisement for holding the public hearing on the draft CZMP on November 5, will be issued on October 4. The public hearing will be attended by officials of environment department, GCZMA, NCSCM, North and South Goa collector and Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) official.
The NCSCM will then incorporate the public inputs while preparing the final plan. Following which, the village-wise plans will be resubmitted to the government for approval on November 9.
The government will consider the revised plan on November 10, while GCZMA will deliberate on the plan on November 12. The decision of the GCZMA will then be forwarded to the MoEF&CC on November 13.
