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‘No plan, no salary’: NGT denies Goa govt 6 more months to complete coastal plan
The NGT rejected the government’s request owing to its “leisurely manner” and gave it until December 31 to complete the plan
Peeved at the repeated extensions sought by the Goa government to finalize the Goa Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), the National Green Tribunal has ruled that the Goa Environment Secretary will not be entitled to claim his salary if the plan is not ready by December 31.
Passing an order based on an application filed by the Goa government seeking a six-month extension from its earlier deadline of August 31 until February 2022, the NGT rejected the government’s request owing to its “leisurely manner” and gave it until December 31 to complete the plan.
“We note that there is a breach of the mandate of finalizing CZMP as per CRZ Regulations, 2011 for the last ten years, causing failure to regulate the matters as per law, to the detriment of the environment. Having regard to the long delay which has already taken place, we see no justification for granting the extension sought,” the Tribunal bench of Adarsh Kumar Goel, Sudhir Agarwal, Brijesh Sethi and Dr Nagin Nanda said.
“The State cannot go on in a leisurely manner without concern for its duty. Accordingly, we direct that if CZMP is not completed even up to 31.12.2021, the concerned Secretary of State of Goa will not be entitled to salary from 01.01.2022 till the default continues. This direction is being issued in the light of the earlier direction in the order dated 27.11.2019, which remains uncomplied, in view of the further extensions of time granted earlier, as above,” the NGT said.
The Goa government filed an application seeking an extension of time for finalizing the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) by six months i.e. till 28.02.2022, as against the time granted and extended from time to time which finally expired on 31.8.2021.
The plan has been pending since 2014 when all coastal states were expected to draw up fresh coastal zone management plans based on the CRZ notification of 2011. However, more than a year later very little had moved, forcing a petitioner to approach the NGT in 2015 with a plea to expedite the process.
By 2017, the Tribunal directed the MoEF&CC to file an affidavit as to why CZMP for different States was not being finalized besides also issuing notices to 13 coastal States and UTs concerned. It was observed that even though six years had passed after the said regulations were notified, CZMP had not been finalised.
The NGT had earlier given the state a deadline of August 31 to complete the plan, which was initially supposed to be completed back in 2014.
In its application, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority said that it was still processing the thousands of objections and suggestions it has received at the public hearings held in August.
Activists have alleged that the plan, as it stands, is full of discrepancies, missing geomorphological features and the lack of an adequate plan for protecting and restoring the coast, (which is the basis of the CZMP) without which the plans will remain incomplete.
