EASE CRZ NORMS FOR GOA : GOA GOVT TELLS GOVT OF INDIA

The state government recently requested the ministry of environment and forests to bring about a Goa-specific amendment to the CRZ notification to save houses of traditional inhabitants. Alternatively, if an amendment to the CRZ notification 1991 is not possible, then the MoEF should consider a one-time exemption to the said structures with conditions that no developmental activity be undertaken in NDZ areas by regulating the activity to be considered in the 200-500 metre zone, the state has requested. These are the notings in the state government’s “explanatory memorandum” regarding the effect of the CRZ notification 1991 and the orders of the high court in the matter on the traditional inhabitants along the coastal belt of Goa. The government’s memorandum notes that the people from Goa’s coastal belt are currently faced with an imminent threat to their traditional dwelling units following the direction of the high court of Bombay at Goa in respect of the implementation of the CRZ notification of 1991. “As many as 2,500 structures within 0-200 metres of the high tide line, 4,553 structures within 200-500 metres and 2,272 structures in the NDZ area of major tidal rivers are coming within the purview of the directives of the high court,” the memorandum observes, adding that “the existing rules do not provide any relief to these structures and there is an urgent need to amend the CRZ notification 1991 to protect the dwelling units of the traditional inhabitants of the coastal belt specific to the state of Goa”