Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Nov 11: Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, Krishna J Palemar, said that a report listing out lacunae and suggestions for the draft Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) notification circulated by the union government has to be submitted before November 15, 2010. He noted that the central government had circulated a new draft notification on the subject on September 15, 2010, considering widespread objections received for its earlier draft from the general public.
Palemar was speaking after presiding over a consultative meeting on CRZ organized under his presidentship at the office of the Dskshina Kannada district deputy commissioner here on Wednesday November 10.
CRZ officer, Mahesh Kumar, giving information on CRZ with the help of Powerpoint presentation, said that the land immediately touching the waterlines of rivers and seas come under CRZ. As undertaking of sand mining activity will be impossible if the current rules are followed, he felt that sand mining should be permitted in this region. He also felt that the developed areas in the outskirts of the city have to be considered as CRZ-2, to enable the fishermen community to build their houses there.
A few suggestions that emerged at the meeting were, allowing the existing local building bylaws to be enforced in CRZ, limiting of CRZ to just 50 metres from the seashore as in Kerala, and bringing CRZ violation cases under the jurisdiction of the district level CRZ Monitoring Authority. MLA, N Yogish Bhat, suggested the formation of a separate law enforcement squad for stopping sea pollution, overseeing sand mining and illegal encroachment of government lands in the district. He said that encroachment of government land will hamper tourism potential in the future and wanted a survey on the lines held within the city, to be undertaken in Bangre and Meenakaliya, to ensure that unauthorized buildings do not come up at these places.
MP, Nalin Kumar Kateel, noted that the menace of unauthorized buildings is rampant even in Someshwar, which holds tremendous tourism potential. He brought to the notice of the meeting that a few companies have been releasing effluents directly into the sea and that they have also been violating environment pollution laws. The meeting also discussed the desirability of making the state environment pollution control board as the nodal authority for ensuring that the effluents are treated before releasing them into the water bodies to ensure that the water sources of the district are not polluted by industries.
Zilla panchayat president, Santosh Kumar Bhandary, assistant commissioner (CRZ), F Mohammed Beary, and others were present.
The regional director (environment) in the city said that memorandums seeking ammendments for the draft CRZ notification can be sent on or before November 15, 2010 to the secretary, environment and forest secretariat, Paryaya Bhavan, CEO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi 110 003 or by email to secy@menf.nic.in by interested people or concerns.