Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) concluded its final personal hearing on Tuesday in connection with the complaint filed by various groups against the construction of a concrete wall on Vainguinim Beach by a hotel.
The GCZMA has informed all parties that it will be deliberating on the matter and arriving at a decision shortly.
At the hearings, the complainants such as Vainguinim Valley Residents Association (VVRA), local resident Banu Shirodkar, Goa Foundation, activist Kashinath Shetye pointed out various flaws in the entire manner in which the GCZMA has acted on their complaints.
The complainants’ also countered arguments put forward by the hotel that essentially claimed that they had done nothing wrong and all the work carried out had been done in consultation with the GCZMA and the Water Resources Department (WRD).
From pointing out that the most of the conditions given in the first NOC by GCZMA had been violated, the complainants’ also questioned why no permissions had been sought from licencing authorities like the village panchayat and North Goa Planning and Development Authority (NGPDA) before commencing the construction work.
Furthermore, they reiterated that the work carried out was not ‘repair work’ for which the NOC had been given but an entirely new construction, for which no permission had been granted. The complainants’ questioned why the GCZMA had been silent on its own expert member having officially raised several red flags in the inspection carried out in April about the use of concrete for the construction and that it was within the inter-tidal No-Development Zone (NDZ).
