MAPUSA: Siolim Marna panchayat at its special gram sabha demanded the scrapping of Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) and called for approving the plan prepared by villagers along with village panchayat in 2019.
Explaining the draft CZMP sent to the Panchayat by CZMP Abhijit Prabhudesai said, “The new CZMP is incomplete and has failed to demarcate the essentials. Wetlands, rivulets, water bodies and others are illegally demarcated as Port Limits.”
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The villagers demanded that these Ports Limits be removed completely from the plan and claimed that these water bodies belong to the locals and the government has no right over them.
Further, the locals said, “The fishing area, fish breeding areas, bunds, sluice gates, traditional pathways to CRZ area and nullahs are missing in the new plan which need to be rectified.”
The locals said they further learnt that sub division number and survey numbers are also demarcated wrongly in the plan.
“By demarcating Port Limits the government is trying to handover the villages to MPT to benefit the crony capitalists. These are port plans and not in benefit of the villagers,” Prabhudesai alleged.
“If this new draft plan is finalised and if any structure is not demarcated on the map then government can demolish it anytime. The people will not be in the position to even approach the Supreme Court for justice,” he said.
