THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
It appears the acts of nature are taking a heavy toll on government work in the country. The State government in an affidavit places before the National Green Tribunal has sought an extension up to March 10, 2021 to finalise the plan stating that the ‘lockdown’ and ‘curfew’ restrictions, imposed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, did not permit the State to finalise the CZMP. The affidavit also states that there has been a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the State, which hampered the work, including identifying the khazan lands and its mapping and the plotting of the outer bunds to limit the HTL.
The preparation of the plan has led to much controversy over the past 18 months of so. It was rejected by the State for errors and then there were taluka-wise consultations arranged with the people on the plan last year in July-August which were boycotted by the people who wanted a completely new plan. Villages sat down burning the midnight oil and sent their plans to the government for incorporation in the State plan. It is essential that the final CZMP has to be completely free of errors as this will be the document based on which future developmental decisions be taken. This plan is important and so it is essential that its preparation cannot be left to chance.
But it also has to completed within a firm deadline. NGT, last November, ‘in a last resort’ extension had granted Goa till January 31, 2020 to submit the draft CZMP to Chennai-based agency NCSCM. NCSCM was to complete the exercise and submit the final draft after a public hearing by April 30, 2020, while the Ministry was directed to issue the final notification on the plan by May 31. It was when the lockdown was announced that the government claims it led to a delay. The longer the finalisation of the plan takes, the longer will development activities in coastal areas be held up, as the State has informed the Principal Bench of the NGT, New Delhi that pending finalisation of CZMP, no approvals are being granted for any development in the coastal areas so as to ensure that no violations occur in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas.
While NGT make take a sympatehtic view of the governmnet’s request, one has to wonder whether the State would have been in a position to meet the earlier deadline had not the pandemic intervened. But, not just the pandemic, the government also said that the heavy monsoon did not permit the ground level exercise of mapping the khazan lands and bunds. Given that the government has now sought up to March 2021 to finalise the plan, would this exercise and the public consultations have been completed in the less two months it had before the deadline and when the pandemic intervened with the lockdowns?
The government has to take extreme care to ascertain that the plan it presents for the public consultations maps all waterbodies in the State. Villagers have turned extremely conscious of the local environment, and this was plain to see when the plan was being discussed last year at gram sabhas. Herald reiterates what it conveyed earlier in this column, that to avoid further issues with the plan, the government has to ensure that the contributions from the villages that it has received are not ignored. It cannot and should not overlook the plans prepared by the villagers, as this would dilute the entire process of consultation that the government had entered into and further delay the plan.
