Panaji: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to ensure that 6 unauthorised private jetties were no longer allowed to operate until they obtained valid permission, with immediate effect.The NGT, in its order on Jan 22, said that any delay in stopping operations at the private jetties would leave the tribunal with “no option but to impose financial penalty on the GCZMA”.In the order, the NGT bench castigated the Goa authorities for dragging their feet. The counsel for the GCZMA said that the hearings based on the notices issued to the private jetty operators would be held on Feb 26 because govt was expected to reconstitute the GCZMA board, whose term expired on December 26.“We fail to understand how this may be treated as compliance with our order of November 12, by which we directed the GCZMA to proceed against the above jetties, which were said to be operating without any valid permission. They ought to have been immediately stopped from operating; instead, only show-cause notices were issued, granting them additional time to operate illegally, taking shelter under the necessary procedure of issuing a show-cause notice,” the order said.TOI reported in Nov how the NGT ordered the GCZMA and the Captain of Ports to seal the private jetties. The NGT also directed the monitoring committee headed by the Chief Conservator of Forests to file an affidavit, but that directive was also not complied with. The court granted an additional 7 days to the Chief Conservator of Forests to file the response “by way of last opportunity”.“We do not deny that the procedure of opportunity of hearing should be adopted, but the first and foremost thing was that their operations ought to have been stopped forthwith. Therefore, we direct the GCZMA to ensure that these jetties are no longer allowed to operate until they obtain valid permission, with immediate effect, failing which we will be left with no option but to impose financial penalty on the GCZMA,” the order said.
