Goa’s finalisation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan has taken on the dimensions of a never-ending saga and the end is not yet in sight. The plan is still nowhere near completion and the State is now seeking an additional 30 days to complete the process. Whether the process can be completed in 30 days is a moot point. The National Green Tribunal had given Goa till August 31 to finalise the plan. The State has missed the deadline and it is not the first such date that Goa has not been able to meet. The State had been seeking extensions to complete the plan since November 2019. In September 2020 the National Green Tribunal had, in a final ultimatum to the State, granted Goa till January 31, 2021 to complete the CZMP, and further extended till March 31 and then again to August 31. That date has just passed by.
The CZMP saga exploded in June 2019 when MLAs themselves rejected the plan that was presented to them. Since then, over two years later, the government has been unable to finalise a plan that is acceptable to the people. Two public hearings (the second mandated as the first one was faulty) and over 8000 suggestions and interventions later, the plan is still in the preparation stage and though the government is planning to seek an additional month to complete the plan, the time frame for this is too limited to do justice to the plan that once approved will be what authorities will rely on to grant permission for development projects. There can, therefore exist no errors in the plan.
Currently, government departments and the expert committee appointed by Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) are on a exercise to verify on the ground the various objections or suggestions that have been made by villagers and stakeholders to the draft plan. Some major issues have been dealt with, including deleting the port limits from the final CZMP map, no depicting of structures on the final map, no buffer zone for mangroves in khazan lands, but various other observations made by individuals and village panchayats require the meticulous attention of the experts. Faults highlighted are essentially of fishing wards haphazardly demarcated, sand dunes missing, errors in markings of hazard lines.
From the time of the public hearing of July 8 to the deadline of August 31, it was a race against time that to any observer of the CZMP finalisation process was obvious would not be met. It has been the State’s slow start off the blocks that has led to the delay. If, the draft plan presented to the MLAs in June 2019 had been error free, then Goa could well have completed the process by now. Every delay in finalising the plan affects development works in the State as a number of projects, especially in the coastal areas, have been kept on hold until the finalisation of the plan. it is obvious that Goa cannot afford more delays. Yet, they are occurring.
There is urgency in the matter but the government authorities involved in the finalisation of the plan have not displayed it. Haste may lead to errors, but a first clean draft may have well led to less time being consumed in revising the plan. So now the State has to ensure an error-free final plan as well as meet deadlines, it’s a sure recipe for slipping up somewhere. To avoid this, the government could take a more pragmatic decision and seek a longer period from the National Green Tribunal for the completion of the plan so that it meets all the criteria. It has already missed the deadline, so why not come forth with a complete and error-free plan?
