PANAJI
The Chennai based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) which has drafted Goa Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2011, has raised strong objection to Goa’s plea to modify and update the notified plan stating that the State cannot draft a CZMP 2019 plan based on a modified database as it is against the CRZ notification and if done, the same will be “questionable”.
Citing several discrepancies in the notified plan based on 1:25,000 scale, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) in September, last year, forwarded the updated CZMP 2011 based on 1:4,000 scale to the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for approval and notification and the same has been vetted by the National Coastal body. The CZMP 2011, based on the 1:25,000 scale, was notified on September 6, 2022.
In a communication to GCZMA on January 23, the NCSCM acting director Dr Purvaja Ramachandran, noted that since NCSCM has already provided the approved CZMP 2011 database and the signed maps, the preparation of CZMP 2019 of Goa can continue with the approved data.
Ramachandran noted that the “CZMP database prepared as per the CRZ notification 2011 which has been scrutinized by the technical scrutiny committee, finalized by the NCSCM and approved by the MoEF&CC shall be used as the base for revision or updation of the CZMP, as per the provisions contained in the CRZ notification 2019.
“Thus only the approved CZMP 2011 database will be used for preparation of the CZMP 2019,” Ramachandran said.
“If any updated or modified CZMP 2011 database is used for preparation of CZMP 2019, then the entire exercise will become liable to be questioned,” he added.
He also pointed out that the MoEF&CC during its recent review meeting held on January 7, advised GCZMA to complete the preparation of CZMP as per CRZ notification 2019 guidelines.
The CZMP guidelines notified under CRZ 2019 notification stated that “the high tide line (HTL), Low tide line (LTL), ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) and critically vulnerable coastal areas (CVCAs) demarcated by the NCSCM and the Hazard line as demarcated by the Survey of India, shall be used by the States/UTs in preparation/updation of the CZMPs as required under the provisions of the CRZ notification 2019’.
The NCSCM said that maps on the 1:4000 scale, prepared based on the approved CZMP, have already been provided to GCZMA.
Earlier, before in an affidavit before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the NCSCM had said that GCZMA cannot raise objections to the CZMP at this stage, after the plan has been approved by the ministry.
“GCZMA did not point out any discrepancy with respect to overlapping boundaries at villages and as per the scale of 1:4000, during the last six years of preparation of the CZMPs/CZM maps from April 2016 to September 2022, nor during the public hearing, nor during the 13th meeting of the Technical Scrutiny Committee held on December 4, 2021, nor during the 45th meeting of the NCZMA held in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change in New Delhi on September 1, 2022,” the agency said.
