PANAJI: In yet another setback, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) on Friday decided to conduct joint inspection of all beaches for three days starting from Saturday before granting approval to the beach shack policy.
The newly-constituted eleven-member authority deliberated on the beach shack policy prepared by the tourism department. The decision to grant approval will be taken on coming Tuesday.
“We have decided to carry out inspection with five different authorities – Tourism department, Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), forest department, fisheries department and land and survey department to identify the stretches where shacks will be erected and to ensure sand dunes are 3-5 metre away from the back portion of shack,” the official said.
The official further reiterated that the NGT decision, to allot shacks based on the beach carrying capacity study for the new tourist season, will only be binding on shacks in private properties and it has nothing to do with shacks to be erected along the beach.
“The beach shack policy of last three tourist seasons evolved as per directions of the High Court and it (court) has considered the policy without beach carrying capacity,” the official added.
According to the GCZMA guidelines framed during last beach shack policy 2013-16, it stated that the beach shacks, as approved by the government, are to be located on the dry beach, ahead of the dunes, by maintaining a setback of 3 metre from the vegetation line and that from the start of vegetation line up to 200 m from high tide line considered as no development zone (NDZ).
The tourism shack policy for the year 2016-19, drafted by the tourism department, stated that erection of shacks can be undertaken only after clearance from the coastal zone management authority.
The final licence would be granted by the tourism department to the eligible shack operators only after ensuring the shacks are erected according to CRZ guidelines. But, the process is long as soon after the approval from the GCZMA the shack area will be demarcated and then only it will be allowed to erect. Following the inspection by the tourism along with the GCZMA expert members, final licence would be granted for operation. The whole process will take atleast two weeks.
The National Green Tribunal on September 19 had directed GCZMA not to grant any permission for erection of shacks, huts, stalls and cottages until the detailed study to assess the carrying capacity of beaches as well as sand dune identification and mapping was done.