Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Government on Sunday sought intervention of Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) in resolving the crucial issue of demarcation of High Tide Line (HTL) beyond the sluice gate in khazan land, as marked by the Chennai based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) while drafting the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) of the State.
State Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral, who met MOEF&CC Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday in Panjim said the apprehensions of the State government about the draft CZMP prepared by NCSCM were explained and the Union Minister is likely to call for a meeting of State, NCSCM and Central CZMA in this regard within a fortnight.
“The Union minister was told about our apprehensions on the draft plan, mostly around the deciding the HTL for the State. He said he would be calling for high level meeting within next 15 days at National Coastal Management Authority by calling the officials of Goa Coastal Regulation Zone and NCSCM,” Cabral informed mediapersons after the meeting.
The minister, however, ruled out the possibility of redrafting the plan but stressed upon making necessary corrections after holding public consultations at taluka level, starting from July 19. “Goa being a small state, having different features, cannot be dealt like the other coastal States. Goa has to be considered on different lines,” Cabral said.
Meanwhile, in a letter to MoEF&CC Minister, Cabral brought to the notice the huge outcry across Goa, from various sections of the society including the political class, both ruling and opposition, to the draft CMP, as there were major errors in the plan.
Cabral said the State is of the view that the HTL beyond sluice gate be dropped and the maps be referred back to NCSCM for further study and corrections, based on the inputs received from public and MLAs.
“The officials of the NCSCM made a note of the concerns raised, but expressed their reservation on doing the same,” the minister said in the letter seeking Union Minister’s intervention to ask the NCZMA to hear Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) and the State, on the demarcation of HTL.
Cabral mentioned that if the proposed CZMP, 2011, is not taken into consideration, the issue of Khazan land will affect the people of Goa adversely for generations to come and therefore there is a need to do the same correctly, so that it remains for posterity.
“The khazans of Goa together occupy an area of about 18,000ha of fertile lowlands and consist in general of four main components: bundh (dyke), manas (sluice gate) rice fields and poiim. During high tide, as the water level in the estuary starts rising, it exerts pressure on the shutters on the manas, forcing the shutters to close automatically thus preventing the brackish water from entering the Khazan,” the letter states.
“Hence, it is important to demarcate the HTL beyond the sluice gate,” the minister added.
