Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott demand cancellation of Public hearing on Draft CZMP Maps
Panjim-Goa : Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott along with other fishermen societies have submitted letter to Collector of North Goa demanding cancellation of the public hearing on Draft CZMP maps which is scheduled for 7th July based on serious procedural lapses as the entire process of preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plans as per the guidelines laid by the CRZ notification 2011 is totally flawed and this is unacceptable on behalf of the coastal communities of Goa and demanded to organize Taluka level public hearing so that maximum fishermen communities representatives can attend and submit their objections so that justice is met to each and every individual.
Olencio Simoes General Secretary of Goenchea Raponkarancho Ekvott have said that Both the designated venues ie. Talegaon community hall,Caranzalem and Ravindra Bhavan in Margao do not have the capacity to accommodate all the traditional fisherfolk from North districts which have 6 talukas and 103 fishing villages and South districts which has 6 talukas and 70 fishing villages,Apart from fisher folk, hundreds of other citizens will also be present and these venues are not equipped to handle the safety and sanitation risks involved.
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The public hearing is scheduled to last for only 9 hours. We find it impossible to believe that concerned people from each village will be given sufficient time to place their objections in front of the concerned authority when in the North, 103 village maps have to be scrutinized and in the South 70 village maps have to scrutinized. This is without even including the 1:25000 scape maps which also need to be scrutinized.
Its is mandatory to demarcate and Mapping of the hazard line shall be carried out in 1:25,000 scale for macro level planning and 1:10,000 scale or cadastral scale for micro level mapping and the hazard line shall be taken into consideration while preparing the land use plan of the coastal areas taking into account, tide, waves, sea level rise and shoreline changes which is not available on the website of the GCZMA nor in any plans uploaded in the website .
The National parks, marine parks, sanctuaries, reserve forests, The wildlife habitats and other protected areas under the provisions of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (53 of 1972), the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (69 of 1980) or Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986); including Biosphere Reserves are not listed in the maps prepared by GCZMA. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary which is at Island of Chorão is not show in the maps besides the Horse shoe crabs habitats, Sea grass beds and associated biodiversity, beach stretches along the bays and creeks are not surveyed and mapped in the present map.
No such consultations have taken place at the village level or any other level with the citizens of Goa especially the coast dependent communities like fisher folk, ,toddy tappers and other local communities, living in the coastal areas to the best of our knowledge. Thus, the presentation of these maps is in itself baseless and undemocratic and defeats the purpose of formulating a CZMP. Public consultations while preparing the maps would help in rectifying the errors that can occur while relying only on satellite imagery, with no ground verification being conducted.
The CZMP maps of the 1996 CZMP which is currently in force are not available in the public domain either on the GCZMA website nor supplied via RTI. Without the CZMP 1996 maps how did the GCZMA prepared the new draft CZMP plan? So how should we to help us compare the previous CZMP with the proposed draft CZMP, we are left with no way to ascertain what changes have been made. Therefore we demand that the public hearing should be scraped and a fresh notice should be published to reschedule the public hearing with the new dates and venues, so that the apprehensions of the fishing community who are directly affected by this proposal are resolved.
Report submitted by : Olencio Simoes (Gen. Sec. of GRE, AGFU & Vice Chairperson of National Fishworkers’ Forum. Contact:9158875851 Email id:olencio365@yahoo.co.in)
