TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Dwelling units which had been constructed by traditional inhabitants in the areas coming under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), would be considered for regularization subject to the condition that these structures were not used for commercial activity or sold out or leased to non-traditional local community, Environment Minister Alina Saldanha told the Goa Assembly.
Alina however clarified that neither the government nor the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar led House Committee has carried out any study with regards to the traditional houses in CRZ area.
“There is also no cutoff date for regularizing these structures,” she said adding ‘the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) will consider the applications on case-to-case basis.’
The minister was replying to the question tabled by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, who sought to know the status of the House Committee functioning, constituted to look into issues pertaining to the traditional inhabitants, who were served demolition notices by local panchayats as per CRZ notification 2011.
The committee was supposed to identify the number of houses under CRZ and also study the issue of the dwellings which had received demolition notices for being in the zone. The committee was constituted in August 2012.
Alina said that the High Court, in a suo moto writ petition, had directed coastal village panchayats to identify and initiate action against all such structures which had been constructed post February 19, 1991, within the No Development Zone (NDZ) areas, ie 0-200 metres of high tide line (HTL) of the coast. This was followed by another direction from the High Court in a public interest writ petition to village panchayats on the coast to identify and take action in accordance with law against those structures which had come up in excess of double the number of units existing as on February 19, 1991.
Pursuant to these directions, the coastal village panchayats proceeded very slowly in identifying the illegal structures and taking action. In many cases, village panchayats were unable to identify illegal structures and they issued demolition notices to all structures.
Alina clarified that neither the government nor the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar led House Committee has carried out any study with regards to the traditional houses in CRZ area
