TEAM HERALD
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday announced that dwelling units of traditional inhabitants like fishermen and tribals along the coastal areas of Goa will be regularised, but with conditions that these are not used for any commercial activity nor sold or transferred to any non-traditional community.
The 1991 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification also sought to allow such structures in the prohibited coastal areas close to the sea, but those living in these had to secure formal approval from the authorities concerned, Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar disclosed in a written reply to a question by Goa’s Congress MP Shantaram Naik.
He said the 2011 CRZ Notification issued on January 6, 2011, takes care of those who failed to secure such an approval earlier by providing that their cases shall be considered by the state-level Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA). He said the notification to improve upon the 1991 regulations was issued after considering the opinion and suggestions from various stake holders.
Javadekar said the Goa Government had also represented that the dwelling units and permissible structures of the traditional inhabitants along the coastal area of Goa, existing as on 01.01.2007, should be protected.
POLLUTED RIVERS: In reply to another question, the minister disclosed that the water quality was not up to the mark in six of the 15 rivers in Goa while water quality of the remaining rivers with respect to Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), a key indicator of organic pollution, were meeting the desired criteria.
The rivers that did not meet the criteria were: River Mandovi in Panjim, river Sal at Khareband, Margao; River Mapusa near culvert on Mapusa-Panjim highway; river Chapora near Alorna Fort, Pernem; River Bicholim at Varazan Nagar and River Sal at Panzorconni, Cuncolim.
As regards the desired criteria of the dissolved oxygen (DO), there was problem with the water quality in Mapusa river near the Mapusa-Panjim highway culvert and Sal river near Khareband, Margao. The situation was, however, bad as regards the level of total coliform and faecal coliform as Goa’s rivers did not meet the desired water quality criteria at many locations, the minister said, adding that it is the State Pollution Control Board that monitors the water quality of rivers.
