Team Herald
MARGAO: The exercise undertaken by the Department of Environment to explain the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) to the villages appears to be a mere formality as the officials were not able to answer the questions raised by the villagers at many places.
On Tuesday, the officials visited 12 village panchayats in Salcete and at two places the whole exercise was a mere routine undertaken by them to just record that they had explained the plan to the villagers based on which, within 15 days, the villages were supposed to send their Coastal Zone Management Plan.
At Navelim Panchayat, one field surveyor went to explain the plan to the 14 villagers who were present. However, the villagers told him that they had rejected the plan that was prepared by National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management and mentioned that they have already sent their draft plan to the government. However, two changes to the draft prepared by the villagers were made, namely it was pointed out that there is no salinity in the tributary of River Sal at Mandopa as per the tests and reports submitted by National Institute of Oceanography and the same correction was asked to be made.
Secondly, while only one sluice gate was shown for the Saipem Lake in their previous draft, the villagers demanded that another sluice gate be marked on the plan even though initially the lake had three sluice gates.
At Chandor, there were only 10 villagers including four panchayat members present for the exercise and the Land Survey Officer who visited the village could not answer any of the questions asked by the villagers and appeared to have visited the village just to get on record that the meeting was held.
The officer could not answer any questions regarding the distance of the Coastal Regulation Zone for the river or about the status of mangroves captured from Google Maps even though they are shown in orchard land or fields.
As the officer could not answer these general questions he was not in a position to even understand the specific questions villagers had regarding the high tide line for the river passing through the village and hence the meeting concluded within half an hour.
