PANJIM: Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral has assured that “government will not just thrust on the people of Goa a plan which is not good.”
The Curchorem MLA made these comments in a letter addressed to the Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco. The Congress legislator had earlier approached the minister demanding that public hearing on the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) be postponed.
Cabral launched a scathing attack on the previous Congress-led-governments, accusing it of sleeping on the 1996 CZMP as well as the 2011 CZMP. He blamed the lackadaisical attitude of the erstwhile Congress government for inflicting a lot of misery on the people of the State, especially those who are affected by the jurisdiction of the CZMP.
“I am also highly anguished about the draft CZMP and the way the entire subject has been handled since the year 1996 when the first CZMP came into existence,” said the minister.
He added that when the first plan was supposed to be prepared in 1996, no exercise was carried out to either mark the high tide line, which is the basis for the whole CZMP or mark the existing structures on the plan.
“Due to this careless and criminal negligence on the part of the then authorities, the State of Goa lost the golden opportunity to set its record right. If this had been done properly, it would have remained for posterity and would not have inflicted the hardship and misery that has been inflicted today on the people of Goa,” he said in his communication to Reginaldo.
Cabral further recalled that even during the second time in 2011, when the plan was supposed to be revised, government didn’t make use of this opportunity and instead adopted a casual and careless attitude whereby no plan was prepared.
Ironically, he pointed out that at both the times the Congress-led governments were in power.
Speaking about the draft plan, the environment minister elaborated on the current problem. He said that when the CRZ notification 2019 came into force, it was realised that the State could not directly prepare the CZMP as per CRZ notification 2019, without preparing the plan as per CRZ notification 2011.
He explained that former Chief Minister (late) Manohar Parrikar had demanded that the scale of the plan to be increased to 1: 4000 when the State was permitted to have a scale of 1: 25000, in order to make the process more transparent.
“Postponing the public hearing is not going to do any good to the people of Goa and I therefore urge you to guide your people as well as the people of Goa to be part of this consultative process,” Cabral said and added that the public hearing is the right forum for raising the fears of the people on the draft plan and not via press conferences which are meant for self glorification. “I can assure you that the government headed by the BJP is serious about the welfare of the State and will do all that is necessary to protect the interest of the people,” he said.
“We will not just thrust a plan which is not good on the people of Goa and that will destroy Goa as we are interested in preserving and protecting our beautiful Goa for the generation to come,” added Cabral.
