PANJIM: The spread of COVID-19 has taken toll over finalisation of the much-delayed draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), as the State Environment Department officials were seen battling with the infection for more than a month.
Moreover, the Bombay High Court at Goa’s interim order restraining the government from proceeding further on the basis of the minutes of the public hearing held on March 7 is currently in force, pending hearing by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The interim order was passed in the last week of March.
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A petition has also been filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), after High Court disposed off the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed before it questioning the conduct of the public hearing by the State Administration for finalisation of the plan.
The High Court observed that the PIL should have been filed before the NGT, which the petitioners agreed upon.
The Environment Department had received over 4,000 objections and suggestions to the draft CZMP, which was kept open for public comments from January to mid March. Also public hearing on the plan had taken place on March 7.
Sources informed that with the top officials including Secretary Environment and Director Environment testing positive for the infection, the process to verify and incorporate the public comments in the draft plan was halted.
“At the same time, the High Court gave liberty to the petitioners to move NGT and accordingly one petitioner has filed application before the NGT challenging the manner in which public hearing was conducted,” the official said.
Also, the official explained that in March, the High Court in an interim order had stayed the entire proceedings and the same remains in force till NGT hears the matter.
During a meeting held last month, the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) has directed the State government to put in “more efforts” to “expeditiously finalise” the CZMP 2011 and to initiate the process to update or revise the CZMP, as per CRZ 2019 in a bid to save time.
The State was expected to submit the draft CZMP 2011 for approval and finalisation to NCZMA by May end.
