After NGT rap, coastal body forms team to track its cases

Panaji: Over the past couple of years, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) has been pulled up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on several occasions. The authority’s representative was either not present for hearings, or the GCZMA was found to delay action in cases of CRZ violations in Goa. After receiving flak in several matters, the GCZMA has deputed legal assistants to keep track of its matters coming up in different courts.
“The authority decided to streamline all its records and prepare its database by tracking all pending court cases and tabling the same year-wise, starting from 2015 till September 2022. The legal assistants concerned are assigned year-wise collections of data. They are directed to go through the official website of the high court, the NGT, and the Supreme Court and check the status in all GCZMA matters, download the necessary orders, print and compile the same,” a decision at one of the authority’s recent meetings states.
While legal assistant Vinit Tari has been directed to collect data for the years 2015, 2018 and 2021, advocate Badal Gaonkar will gather data for 2016, 2019 and 2022. Legal retainer Venefreda Gracias will be compiling data for 2017 and 2020.
In the most recent case of the GCZMA finding it tough to keep track of matters related to Goa in the different courts, the NGT ordered a showcause notice to be served to it for not submitting a report in the case of an alleged CRZ violation by a hotel at Siolim.
Last month, in another case of CRZ violation at Colva, the tribunal had asked the state’s chief secretary to hold an inquiry as the GCZMA was found to have gone lax in executing a demolition order. The tribunal observed that the conduct of officials of the GCZMA “is under a cloud of suspicion”, as the body did not demolish the illegal constructions by a Colva hotel despite Supreme Court orders.