PANJIM: Goa government is likely to face the ire of National Green Tribunal (NGT) as it is all set to miss yet another deadline of January 31, granted by the Tribunal to submit Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) to the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), which is entrusted with the task of preparing CZMP, almost two years back, is yet to submit its report. As per law, the report has to be then placed for public consultation for a period of 30 days before finalising and submitting it to the Ministry.
“NCSCM was supposed to submit its report last week but it has not done so. We are expecting it in the coming week,” a senior official said while admitting that Goa will not be in position to meet the deadline of January 31.
The official said that the report will have to be kept open for public suggestion and objections for a period of 30 days, once the draft is approved by the government.
NGT, through a country wide order in November 2017, had set a deadline of April 30, 2018 for all coastal States and Union Territories to submit CZMPs to MoEF&CC. It was granted three-month time till July 30, 2018 to approve the plans.
However, Goa government approached the Tribunal with an application seeking further extension to submit the plan citing technical reasons for the delay in preparing the plan by NCSCM.
The CZMP will cover shoreline management, conservation management, pollution management, tourism, resource and livelihood management.
The old CZMP, drafted way back in 1996 (extended time and again) was valid up to January 2017.
