The National Green Tribunal (NGT) dismissed the State government’s plea seeking an additional six months to complete and notify the draft coastal zone management plan (CZMP) but has given the State up to December 31 this year to complete the process. The State had till August 31 last to complete the plan, but having received over 7000 suggestions and objections in July last had sought an extension. The order of the National Green Tribunal could expedite the completion as the plan has been pending long enough for the tribunal to state that Goa cannot go on in a leisurely manner without concern for its duty.
Goa has been constantly seeking extensions to complete the plan, and in November 2019 had been granted a ‘last resort’ extension till January 31, 2020 to submit the draft CZMP to Chennai-based agency NCSCM. It missed all deadlines, there were discrepancies found in the public hearing forcing the State to hold a second public hearing and ultimately the process has reached to the ground truthing of the suggestions and objections received, leading to Goa again missing the deadline. Now faced with approximately two and a half months, Goa’s next steps in this are going to be crucial. It has to complete the plan or the State Environment Secretary will forfeit his salary from January onwards.
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In the current scenario, it is pertinent to establish why there was a delay in the process. The government may have gone to the National Green Tribunal stating it has received over 7000 suggestions and objections to the draft plan that need to be verified and accordingly changes in the plan made. But can the government escape by pointing a finger at the people? To answer that one has to look at what happened in June 2019. Despite people’s demands to have the public hearing postponed, the government had remained adamant on the date, but a special presentation of the plan for Members of the Legislative Assembly, had ministers seeing for themselves just how many errors had been made in the plan and a decision was taken not only to defer the hearing, but send back the plan to the drawing board, asking the agency to come up with a revised version. Had there been no errors in the plan, this situation would never have arisen.
But it didn’t end there, the revised plan was also riddled with errors and though environment conscious citizens spent nights finalising their village plans for incorporation, they found that many of their inputs had been ignored and this led to the over 7000 suggestions and objections on the revised plan. Why should there have been more errors on the plan? The agency tasked with correcting the plan should have ensured that it produced an error-free plan, and that every coastal area in the State was mapped. Had that been done, the CZMP would have been finalised and possibly even notified by now. The reasons for the delay are not suggestions and objections but the deficiencies in the maps.
The map once notified will remain in place for a decade or longer and it is based on this that developmental projects will get approvals in the coastal areas. It, therefore, cannot be formulated cursorily or have errors. It is meant to protect the fragile coastal areas of the State and bring about a balance in the environmental, economic, human, health and other activities in the area. All issues raised by the people have to, therefore, be meticulously considered. The plan cannot meet with further objections from the people as it would then be further delayed. To avoid that it has to be complete and free of mistakes.
