VASCO: Goenchea Ramponnkarancho Ekvott (GRE) has stated that the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) would only be mocking the Goans, if it goes ahead with the taluka level presentations on the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).
According to GRE member Olencio Simoes, such an exercise would amount to legitimising the wrongs committed by The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), rather than blacklisting and recovering the Rs 2 crore paid to them to prepare the maps.
Olencio said that it was GCZMA that had postponed the public hearing scheduled on July 7 as NCSCM failed to prepare CZMPas per the guidelines laid down by the CRZ notification 2011. “But shamelessly the GCZMA is planning to hold taluka level presentation without making even a single change in the maps,” he said.
The GRE has demanded that the NCSCM should be immediately dropped, as it has “consistently proven guilty of not preparing the CZMP as per the guidelines.”
“Besides, in several the cases their reports were struck down by the High Court of Bombay, too. Therefore, the government should only appoint the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa University and Water Resource Department (WRD) to prepare the CZMP as the CRZ notifications 2011 in Para 5 clause (ii) gives clear liberty to the State to appoint reputed and experienced scientific institutions,” he said.
Point out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formed the Jal Shakti Ministry due to water crises in several cities of India, GRE President Agnelo Rodrigues said, “The same water crisis we have been facing in Goa, too, as the Water Resources Department (WRD) had asked the mine owners to pump out water into the rivers that feeds reservoirs like Opa and Selaulim dam.”
Demanding postponement of the taluka level presentation on draft CZMP, Rodrigues said, “Only after NIO, GU and WRD prepare a new plan after thorough ground work, the presentation should be held.”
