PANJIM: As the November 15 deadline set by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to finalise the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) is approaching, State Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral is making efforts to convince the Centre to amend the CRZ Notification 2011 with Goa as a special case to make the CZMP a ‘fruitful’ exercise.
After a series of communications, Cabral has now sought an appointment with Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Prakash Javdekar, for his personal intervention in the matter.
In a letter to Union Minister dated October 31, Cabral has requested him to arrange the Secretary MoEF&CC, Director of National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) Chennai and other concerned officials to remain present at the meeting.
“The draft CZMP 2011 of the State of Goa is yet to be prepared because of various objections raised by the people of Goa, which has been briefed by me to you in the presence of Chief Minister, during your visit to Goa in July 2019,” Cabral said in the letter.
He said that NGT has granted time till November 15 to the State to finalise the CZMP 2011 and for this purpose amendments as prayed, are of ‘utmost importance and time is of essence’. “Therefore, I plan to make a visit to Delhi to meet you personally and seek your kind intervention in the matter,” the Minister added.
Cabral had on September 30 met officials of the Union Ministry seeking various amendments to the CRZ notification 2011 to allow the State to exclude the High Tide Line (HTL) in khazan lands, so as to facilitate the drawing of a practical CZMP. He had pointed out that panchayats and concerned citizens had raised strong objection over erroneous demarcation of HTL.
Later, in a letter dated October 23 to Javdekar, Cabral had pointed out that the amendments suggested by the State are to be placed before the National Coastal Zone Management Authority’s (NCZMA) 39th meeting, which is to be held very soon.
“I would be greatly pleased if you could prevail upon the officials of the MoEF&CC to consider the case of our State and make necessary amends to the CRZ Notification 2011 because it is only my State that is yet to prepare the CZMP,” the Minister had said in his earlier latter.
“The CZMP 2011 will be fruitful exercise only if the amendments as suggested by our State are accepted which would enable the NCSCM Chennai to prepare the draft CZMP,” he had added further.
