New Delhi, May 20: Andhra Pradesh and Odisha continue to lag behind over the issue of complying with the directives of the Environment Ministry on coastal zone management.
The meeting of National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) on Thursday reviewed the compliance status of its decisions by the State Coastal Zone Management Authority (SCZMA) and action taken on the violations.
MoEF had issued directions in January this year regarding identification of violations under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011 and initiation of action thereupon. As per the directions, all the States/UTs CZMAs were required to identify the violations of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 1991 within a period of four months and initiate action under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 on the identified violations within four months thereafter.
While Odisha is yet to place the decisions of MoEF on the table so far, Government of Andhra Pradesh admitted that it has not initiated a formal process as per the directions of MoEF.
The Odisha Government admitted that they have not yet placed the directions of MoEF before the Orissa SCZMA and requested for a time of about 12 months for completion of the exercise on identification of violations.
The Government of Andhra Pradesh informed of violations in Visakhapatnam district and that they have not initiated a formal process as per the directions. The AP SCZMA has not acquired, so far, the satellite imageries to identify such violations.
Karnataka has identified about 46 cases of violations. It said necessary directions have been issued in 16 cases so far. The State authorities informed that KSCZMA would further identify and review the cases of violation of CRZ Notification.
——–Agencies