Team Herald
PANJIM: In major relief to the Goa government, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Principal Bench, has granted the State till January 31, 2020 to submit the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) to the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM).
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), has been directed to issue the final notification on the plan by April 30, next year.
In September, NGT had granted Goa till November 15 to submit the CZMP to MoEF&CC for finalisation. Since, Goa was the only State that had failed to finalise the CZMP within the stipulated time period, NGT had warned of coersive action against the officers.
On Wednesday, when the matter came up for hearing before the Tribunal, Adv Nalin Kohil and Adv Harsh Peechara, representing the State Environment Department, sought time till January 15, 2020 to submit the draft CZMP to NCSCM.
NGT granted Goa time till January 31, 2020 with a rider that failure to submit the plan will result in deduction of salaries of the concerned officers of the Environment Department.
NCSCM has been directed to complete the exercise within three months thereafter and submit the final draft after public hearing to MoEF&CC by March 31. The Ministry has been directed to issue final notification by April 30, next year.
Environment department has till date received around 70-odd village level CZMPs, which have been forwarded to NCSCM, for correction in the earlier plan. The plan drafted by NCSCM contained several anomalies and was rejected by the government and returned for correction.
The State had earlier been asked to submit the plan by August 31. The government has been unable to complete the CZMP exercise pending necessary amendments to CRZ notification 2011.
Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral had approached MoEF&CC seeking amendments to the CRZ Notification 2011 with Goa as a special case emphasising that the CZMP would be a ‘fruitful’ exercise only if the amendments are accepted.
The government has requested the Ministry to allow the State to exclude the High Tide Line (HTL) in khazan lands, so as to facilitate the drawing of a practical CZMP. Cabral had pointed out that panchayats and concerned citizens have raised strong objection to erroneous demarcation of the HTL.
