PANAJI: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has agreed to expand the Goa Deadline to complete the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) until December 31.
However, the court said that if Goa failed to meet a new deadline, as a penalty, as a punishment.
The secretary of the state concerned will not be paid salaries since January 2022 until the default continues.
“This direction was released in the light of the previous direction in the order of November 27, 2019, which was still not connected,” said Tribunal.
The last deadline for Goa is August 31, which failed to be fulfilled by the state.
Goa has been given three extensions to complete the CZMP and the state government have searched the fourth.
The country’s request for six months extension until 28 February 2022, was rejected.
The state government has requested the latest extensions stating that it would take time to consider objections received from the public on the CZMP draft.
“We noted that there was a violation of the mandate to complete the CZMP according to the Crz regulation, 2011, over the past 10 years, causing failure to regulate the problem of law, to harm the environment.
Noting the old delay that has occurred, we do not see justification to provide the extension sought, “Tribunal said.
The country cannot walk casually in carrying out its duties, NGT observes.
The application was first submitted before NGT in 2015 stated that there was a rampant degradation from coastal areas in the country with the absence of effective regulations.
In 2017, NGT asked the UNI Ministry of Environment to submit a written statement about why CZMP for different states was not finished.
The court has also issued a notification to 13 states and UTS.
The court observed that six years had passed in 2017 since CRZ regulation which requires countries to have CZMP.
The deadline for April 30, 2018, set for various countries to complete their plans, at that time since then extended by NGT twice.
Fingering this deadline, Goa then asked for further extensions, stating that the delay was from the end of the national center for the management of sustainable coast (NCSCM), Chennai.
Earlier this year, the Goa Foundation approached the court stating that there were shortcomings in public hearing carried out by the Government of Goa.
The court found the benefits of this argument and extended the goa deadline until August 31, 2021, which failed to be fulfilled by the state.