Team Herald
PANJIM: As yet another deadline to finalise the Coastal Zone Management Plans ends on August 31, the State government will plead before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for another month’s extension to complete the plan that has been pending since 2016.
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NGT had in June directed the State government to complete the process of finalising CZMP by August 31. However, various government departments and expert committee appointed by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) are currently undertaking ground truthing exercises to verify the objections or suggestions made by villagers and other stakeholders to the draft plan.
Sources said the government will file an application by Tuesday, seeking time till September 30 to finalise the CZMP. “We have received over 8000 objections and suggestions to the plan. The public hearing concluded on July 8. Verification of these inputs is
currently going on. We will need at least a month time to finalise the plan,” sources said.
Based on the recommendation, sources said that the Chennai based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) will be directed to make necessary changes in the final plan.
The State has been preparing he plan since 2016. Several discrepancies were noted by NGT in the public hearing held on March 7, as pointed out by the petitioner, Goa Foundation, and accordingly the State was directed to conduct fresh hearings.
Officials reiterated that GCZMA has already decided and has recommended to NCSCM to remove the port limits from the final CZMP map. It has also stated that no structures will be depicted on the final CZMP map and that as such all structures which are shown on the map will be removed
GCZMA has also clarified that mangroves that come in the khazan lands will not have any buffer areas.
