The Aam Aadmi Party has launched a Legal cell to aid Goans with with the CZMP hearings. The party firmly believes that these hearing need to be had on the village level and not conducted in the haphazard manner in which they are now, the party, however does not want to give the BJP a chance to steal Goans’ lands.The legal cell will be led by AAP Leader Adv Prasad Shahpurkar to help villagers in their CZMP objections.
It has to be noted that in the last hearing many Goans were excluded, and the demand across the state was that these hearings should be held on a village level to ensure each and every Goan is listened. However, not only is the hearing now happening on an open ground but is happening in the middle of the monsoon season!
As regard to the draft the State Government and NCSCM were required by CRZ Notification 2011 (sec 5, (ii)) to prepare the draft CZMPs “in consultation with the concerned stakeholders”. Many Goans clearly state that neither the State Government nor NCSCM ever visited their village or their Panchayat. Therefore, these draft CZMPs are illegal and invalid. This is also the reason that the draft CZMPs are full of errors and cannot be corrected. In some villages the HTL and LTL have not been verified on the field. Moreover the Govt has not taken a single step to educate and inform villagers about the draft CZMP and it’s impact on their lives. Geo-referenced maps that have been submitted by AAP in 2019 and 2021 have not been added to the draft and therefore the draft is full of errors.
Goan fisherman will face the brunt as the CZMPs prepared by NCSCM fail to show the fishing activities of the fisher folk of Goa. The NCSCM draft CZMPs do not even have a legend for fishing areas or fishing zones. This is in gross violation of the guidelines for preparation of CZMPs and of the objectives of the CRZ Notification 2011.
“None of the teams have visited our village in Benaulim”, said AAP Leader Capt Venzy Viegas. “In its reply to the GCZMA, NCSCM has lied blatantly in its letter No 17-741 dated 2/5/2017 that it has carried out ground truthing” added Capt Viegas
“The HTL and LTL are specifically required to undergo field verification as mandated in the CRZ Notification, but this was never done” said Eng Cruz Silva AAP leader from Velim.
“The Government has never taken a single step or effort to explain the draft CZMPs prepared by NCSCM for each village to the local communities, residents, or even the Village Panchayat officials/local representatives” said Sandesh Teleikar Dessai AAP leader
“We have submitted these plans in 2019 and again in 2021 upon request from the Government, we have submitted geo-referenced soft copies of the village CZMPs. Therefore, these plans should have been notified as the draft CZMPs, or, in the alternative, the accurate data mapped by the people should have been incorporated in the draft CZMPs. Since this was not done while preparing the new draft CZMPs in 2021, the draft CZMPs are so full of errors that they are beyond rectification. The ‘Objectives’ of the CRZ Law are totally violated” said Capt Venzy Viegas .
Goans should bring AAP Environment Model To Goa.
The Best Environment Model of AAP.