NT Reporter
Panaji
The state Department of Environment and Climate Change said that confusion over public consultation timelines for the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2019 has resulted from a circular being wrongly forwarded to all 191 village panchayats.
A senior official said that an internal interdepartmental communication was mistakenly circulated to panchayats through the Department of Panchayats.
“There is a miscommunication. We have not given two days. We will follow the due procedure prescribed in the notification. The plan will go for public hearing in due course of time. The draft plan will be published everywhere. Time will be given to the public to file their objections. Advertisements will be published in newspapers,” the
official said.
The confusion arose after the department sent a circular to the Directorate of Settlement and Land Records, the Water Resources Department and the Department of Panchayats seeking suggestions and data related to the draft coastal maps prepared under the CRZ Notification, 2019. The Department of Panchayats subsequently forwarded the circular to Block Development Officers, who circulated it to all village panchayats with a deadline of January
20 for feedback.
The official said the communication was meant strictly for internal consultation to collect inputs as a precautionary exercise to ensure that no data gaps remained before the draft plan is placed in the public domain.
On Monday, representatives of coastal villages and non-governmental organisations, along with Velim MLA Cruz Silva, met the department’s director and sought an extension of the deadline.
