MARGAO: The National Green Tribunal has come down heavily on the Goa State Coastal Zone Management Authority and the Goa Tourism Department for their alleged faulty handling of environmentally sensitive issues and has ordered withdrawal of permissions to 335 shacks issued without proper study. The NGT has ordered both the agencies to comply with the directions within a week or face strict action.
In a petition by Aleixo Pereira against the temporary structures erected by all over Goa, the NGT has granted liberty to the petitioner to initiate criminal proceedings against the authorities concerned for non-compliance of the directions passed. The NGT has also ordered GCZMA to immediately carry out a rapid survey to identify sand dunes and CRZ-1 areas.
“We deprecate this approach, particularly when a public body like GCZMA is dealing with public affairs. No permission could have been granted without the studies required being completed as per the said directions. We, therefore, direct the GCZMA to revoke all such permissions issued by them within a week,” said the division bench at NGT, Pune.
The NGT has further ordered the GCZMA to tentatively identify the sand dunes present in the village with CRZ-I areas in the coastal areas of Goa and locate them on map, within a period of four weeks and shall not issue any permission in such areas until the detailed survey being conducted by NIO, is completed.
“The GCZMA, shall carry out study to assess the carrying capacity of different beaches in State of Goa, for providing such shacks and other temporary structures, in environmentally sustainable manner to protect the coastal environment, based on the ‘precautionary principle’ in next six months and based on findings of this study, the permissions for the year 2015-2016, only shall be granted” says the order of the NGT.
Meanwhile, the petitioner Aleixo Pereira has decided to go ahead and file criminal proceedings against GCZMA and Tourism Department officials responsible for the irregularities.
