Team Herald
PONDA: The Shiroda farmers and fishermen on Friday claimed that the new coastal zone management plan (CZMP) of the village is actually the same old plan (in consolidated form) sent to the local panchayat, earlier.
Addressing the media in Ponda, the farmers and fishermen said that their suggestions have not been incorporated into the plan that was sent some days ago, but was displayed in the panchayat office only on Thursday.
Therefore, the villagers said, they strongly object to this “faulty” CZMP for their village.
The villagers informed the media that they have requested the CZMP authorities to send their representative to Shiroda to consult the stakeholders to know the reality so as to incorporate their suggestions into the new plan before finalising it. Maintaining that the government should not force its plan on them, they said they strongly oppose a jetty in their village plan.
The villagers demand that the fishing zones, fish breeding areas, eco-sensitive zones, houses/structures coming within CRZ, khazan land, fields, high tide line, bundhs, fishermen huts, net mending areas and fishing wards should be properly marked in the village plan.
They said that the ferry wharf in the village has been wrongly marked as jetty/shipyard on the CZMP.
“There should be proper marking of roads, pathways, coconut groves, sluice gates and other features peculiar to Shiroda village,” they said.
They also claimed that the government directed an officer to conduct a survey of fishermen in Shiroda before October 4, 2019, but the officer has not done the job.
