After a long wait for action against illegalities, Goa government has finally issued a circular directing the Collectors, Deputy Collectors, Mamlatdars, and flying squads to take cognizance of any illegal landfilling or construction within their jurisdiction and initiate legal proceedings against those involved in the illegalities. However, the government’s model of governance is marred with contradictions as the State takes the initiative to crack down on the illegalities along state and national highways, but it has done very little to ensure that illegal constructions along the coast stop mushrooming.
In September last year, fishermen across the State were in fear as the government began a survey of the shores to demarcate land belonging to the Tourism Department. The fishermen’s huts used for parking their canoes and nets had come under the scanner and the fishing community feared that despite these huts being protected under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules, the government intended to raze them.
In contrast, recently shack owners from the North Goa coastal belt, guilty of entrenching soak pits on the beaches have approached the government and requested the Tourism Minister not to suspend their licences. They were accompanied by the Calangute MLA.
It took the Goa government more than a decade to get the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2011, prepared and then notified by the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in September last year. Meanwhile, the illegalities during this period remain unaccounted for, unless brought to the notice by civil society or challenged before the judiciary by environmental activists.
In fact, a walk along the coastline of Goa would have revealed the mighty structures that stand in the name of high-end tourism facilitation centres such as resorts, hotels and private bungalows, and the illegalities that have been carried out to protect palatial private residence from the public glare. Most of these structures have been made possible by virtue of the high stakes most of the political heavyweights of the State, as well as the country, have in the real estate or its allied industry.
Goa’s land has turned into the most sought-after commodity of the country, as every rich Indian is on the lookout for a holiday home along the beach and coast of Goa. The government has consistently turned a Nelson’s eye to the hill-cutting saga along the coast and river banks, unless activists have challenged the illegal developments.
A boat ride along rivers and their tributaries into the interiors, exposes the dark reality of the illegalities carried out along the banks. Housing projects and bungalows have been constructed along the river bank with complete disregard to the rules.
The High Tide Line (HTL) or the No Development Zone (NDZ) as per CRZ 2011 is up to 200 metres from the coast and 100 metres from the river banks and from 200 to 500 metres constructions are subject to the approval of the State government. However, it is anybody’s guess whether illegal constructions have the blessings of political angels.
State’s CZMP 2011 plan has been notified and a work to draft CZMP 2019 has been handed over to Kerala-based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS). The CRZ notification 2019 and its rules empower the State planning authorities (PDAs) and local bodies with licencing powers for building and construction projects in CRZ areas – which do not attract the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), and self-dwelling units up to 300 square metres of built-up areas in CRZ areas. However, in the absence of CZMP 2019, the CRZ 2019 will not be applicable to Goa.
Thus, while the government is still struggling, or at least portrays to struggle, to measure the HTL, the rich and the powerful have either already built or have ensured that there are no barriers to completing their dream homes along the coast and the river banks. There cannot be two Goa – one ruled to suppress the common man and the other letting a free hand to the rich and powerful.
