PANAJI: The high court of Bombay at Goa disposed of cases questioning public hearing conducted by the North Goa collector for finalising the coastal zone management plan (CZMP) after the petitioners agreed to file appropriate proceedings before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) at New Delhi.
In March, the high court had restrained the government respondents from proceeding further on the basis of the minutes of the hearing on March 7, 2021, for a period of three weeks or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
The high court had passed the interim order and observed that the PIL ought to have been filed before the NGT. But they were hearing the petitioners as western zone bench of the tribunal at Pune has not been functional.
The high court, in its recent order, observed, “Considering the chequered history of the matter, we request the NGT to take up the petitioners’ applications for interim relief, in the said proceedings as expeditiously as possible and preferably within a period of four weeks from the date of the institution of the proceedings.”
“Until the applications for interim relief are disposed of by the NGT, the interim orders made by us in this petition will operate,” the court added.
The public hearings of March 7, 2021, for the CZMP was shunned by people, terming it as a farce, as the state government restricted the number of registrations citing Covid protocols and each speaker was allotted just 5 minutes.
Amid angry protests inside and outside the venues, with a huge posse of police personnel guarding it, the state government claimed to have successfully concluded the hearings.
There was utter chaos as hundreds of people came out against the CZMP demanding wider consultation, even as the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority carried out the exercise at Panaji and Margao through the district collectors
Even those who had registered, refused to speak and called for hearing to be postponed for accommodating all those who wanted to give their suggestions, while some wanted it to be prepared in consultation with the panchayats.