Postpone CZMP public hearings: Congress

Team Herald 

PANJIM: The Opposition Congress Party on Monday demanded the State government should postpone the public hearings on Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) scheduled on July 8 and to have a participative plan for the greater good of the people and meet their aspirations.

Speaking to the reporters at Congress House, here, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar alleged that the BJP government is all out to sell Goa to the crony club of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the remaining seven months and hence wants to suppress the voice of the people who are trying to protect the identity of Goa by holding the public hearings on the CZMP under the ambit of curfew and National Security Act (NSA) and once again pushing the Goans in the death trap of COVID-19.

Chodankar condemned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for being a mute spectator to growing demand of the citizens to postpone the public hearings of the CZMP at open venues in both the districts.

“We are just four days away and there are no signs from the government to ensure that participation and freedom of speech is protected of all the participants in the said hearings,” he said.

When asked why the Congress Party is making a late demand to postpone the public consultations which are four days away, Chodankar said, “We are not against the CZMP but public hearings cannot be held in undeclared emergency. By extending curfew and by invoking NSA, the government wants to have public hearings at gun-point creating fear among the public. Congress Party will not allow the high handedness of BJP government at any cost.”

Chodankar charged that the government was sleeping for the last nine years and did not even bother to complete the process even after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order in 2017, pulled the State government for failure to complete the CZMP. It is now evident that the government is in a hurry to complete the CZMP without following the procedures and by bypassing the people’s genuine concerns. 

The government’s sole intention is to implement the new CRZ Notification of 2019 which will reduce No Development Zone (NDZ) to 50 metres so that 105-km-long coastline is sold to crony friends and through Sagarmala project, he said.

The Congress president demanded that these public hearings be held at village panchayat level so that every village that has prepared their village-level map can react positively and present their views and observations vis-a-vis their village.