Told Centre about discrepancies in 2011 coastal plan: Minister

Panaji: Environment minister Aleixo Sequeira on Wednesday said Goa govt has brought to the notice of the Union environment ministry “certain discrepancies” that still exist in the state’s Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), 2011. He said the ministry will get the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) to correct those defects.

Sequeira said Goa is in a quandary as there is pressure from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to finalise the CZMP 2019 while there are still corrections required in the 2011 plan.

“We have written to govt of India. We have found certain discrepancies, so we have brought them to the notice of the Union environment ministry, which has asked the NCSCM, Chennai, to have a re-look,” Sequeira said. “This is a situation where on one side we have the NGT pressing for the completion of CZMP 2019, and on the other side we have found certain discrepancies which we feel should be rectified before we start work on CZMP 2019. So, there is a little bit of tug-of-war between the two.”

Earlier, in an NGT matter, the NCSCM told the tribunal that the Goa CZMP, 2011, was finalised from its side and Goa cannot raise objections at this stage when it did not point out any discrepancies during the various meetings that were held to finalise the plan.

The NCSCM, in its counter affidavit filed on Jan 29 before the NGT, said Goa did not point out any discrepancy during the last six years of preparing the CZMPs/CZM maps from April 2016 to Sep 2022. Similarly, discrepancies were highlighted neither during the public hearing, nor during the 13th meeting of the technical scrutiny committee held on Dec 4, 2021, and not even during the 45th meeting of the NCZMA held by the Union environment ministry, in New Delhi, on Sep 1, 2022, it stated.

The NCSCM said the GCZMA also did not point out any such faults with the CZMP during the approval of the plan conveyed by the Union environment ministry on Sep 6, 2022. The Chennai agency further said the GCZMA cannot raise any objection now over the CZMP or the CZM maps on a 1:4000 scale after recommending them to the NCZMA, and after the Union environment ministry approving them.



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