Porvorim (Goa): Goa government may move to the National Green Tribunal seeking to exempt certain important projects from its recent order which has banned any new activity in the Coastal Regulation Zone till Coastal Zone Management Plan is finalized.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the State Legislative assembly that the state might also seek legal recourse to get the state exemption from this order. The NGT in its recent directions had asked different states not to undertake projects in CRZ till their respective Coastal Regulation Zone Management Plans are finalized.
Parrikar was responding to a question tabled by his own party colleague Carlose Almeida over the construction of a fishing jetty in Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) in Vasco town.
During the Question Hour, Parrikar said that “if required state will approach NGT to amend their order so that it is not applicable for certain important projects.”
“We can decide the permission for these projects on case-to-case basis,” he said referring to the possibility of moving to NGT to amend the order.
“If require we may go to any legal forum,” he said without elaborating on which forum he was mentioning.
The chief minister said that the restriction imposed by NGT is up to March-April (next year) and State will complete its documentations about the jetty project by that time.
Opposition benches including congress legislators Chandrakant Kavlekar, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Luizinho Faleiro and NCP’s Churchill Alemao tried to corner State government on the issue of construction of the fishing jetty which is being done with the central funding.
Parrikar said that the operational control of the jetty will remain with the State government while MPT will monitor its construction as the project is financed by the union government.
The chief minister also took a dig at Congress party claiming that they (Congress) during their seven years rule in Goa (2005-2012) failed to get even Rs 100 crore from the centre while BJP (2012-till date) has brought Rs 15,000 crore from the centre for various projects.
Responding to a question about frequent clashes between MPT and local fishermen over the jetty, Parrikar said that the jetty is in the port jurisdiction and there were complaints from the port authorities that the fishermen were intruding in their area.
“Intrusion of fishermen becomes a security risk as State fisheries department has failed to give identity cards to those working on the trawlers,” he said.
Parrikar claimed that 99.9 per cent people working on trawlers are not Goans and mostly they are from Jharkhand and Orissa, which makes difficult to verify their credentials.
The four day long assembly session began today which will culminate on December 18. This would be the last assembly session for the current calendar year.
