SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2024
The draft Coastal Zone Management Plan that was placed in public domain earlier this month has drawn varied objections across the State. Going by the fact that this plan was prepared with inputs received from villagers many of who burnt the proverbial midnight oil to complete their village plans so that they could meet the deadline, this should not have occurred. That there is opposition to the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan prima facie indicates that the village plans submitted for incorporation in the State plan have been amended. For technical reasons amendments to a certain extent are acceptable, but this here, going by the opposition to the plan, appears to go beyond technical alterations.
Village after village is rejecting the draft plan. Special public meetings during working days during the morning hours were called by certain villages to make their opposition to the plan official. Points raised are of fishing wards haphazardly demarcated, sand dunes missing, errors in markings of hazard lines, discrepancies in port limits or areas marked for net mending areas, changes in Central laws leading to local bodies like panchayats and biodiversity committees being bypassed. This, the people are not happy about and some villages have resolved to oppose the draft plan and force the incorporation of the plan that they had prepared and submitted in 2019.
In July 2019, the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan had been found to be ‘not satisfactory’ and had been rejected by the government and sent back to be re-drafted ‘in the interest of Goa and Goans’. That was when villages were given the opportunity to create their own plans and submit. Most villages did this, and so didn’t expect any further changes from what they had prepared and tendered to the government. As assurance given at that time was that the plan would be redrafted and presented again and that all objections and suggestions would be considered in drafting the new plan. That’s when villages, under the guidance of civil society groups, set to work on the plans.
Goa Foundation that held meetings in both districts last week to highlight the discrepancies in the draft plan has termed the draft CZMP an obituary as it lacks suggestions or steps to rehabilitate and restore coastal assets that stand degraded. What then is the purpose of the plan if not to conserve what is there and restore what has been lost? After the villages had presented their plans the debate was on whether Goa would be able to meet the deadline for its finalisation. Extended deadlines are now hovering over the State but what Goa needs to focus on is having the right plan for the State, whatever be the deadline to have it finalised.
There is one week before the public hearings that have been scheduled next Sunday in both districts. How does the government propose to address all the issues that have been raised by the people over the past days?
The public hearings a week from today are going to play an important role in the finalisation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan. Over the next week, villagers are advised to study the village plans and seek answers to their doubts. To encourage this, our Herald Review section devotes three entire pages to the CZMP with inputs from Goa Foundation so that people can understand what they need to look at when they check their village maps. It won’t be an easy task, as these are technical matters, but they have to be undertaken. Do appreciate that once the Coastal Zone Management Plan is finalised and approved, there can be no more changes. It will be, as is described in local parlance, locked.
