Against the backdrop of the Adarsh housing scam in this city which made nation-wide news, various states have begun acting to identify and penalise violation of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, 1991 (revised in January 2011).
These are a sequel to recent directions from the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), to prosecute breaches of the green norms.
The Maharashtra government has issued a notice to the Hari Siddhi society. The latter came up on Coast Guard land, in alleged violation of the CRZ. As for the 31-storey Adarsh housing complex, meant for widows of Kargil war heroes but grabbed by defence officials, bureaucrats and politicians, the MoEF has already directed its demolition; appeals are being argued.
A member of the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA), who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard: “The Authority recently took a review of various measures launched by states following issuance of MoEF directives. States have been told to be transparent by putting up the identified violations and action taken on violations on their websites.”
Karnataka, with a 320-km coast, has identified 46 cases of violations and necessary directions have been issued in 16 cases. The Karnataka State CZMA would continue to identify and review the cases; it is to give more details in the next meeting of NCZMA.
In Tamil Nadu, with 1,076 km of coast line covering 13 districts, district committees have been formed for implementation of the CRZ regulations. The MoEF directions have been placed before the Tamil Nadu State CZMA and a format evolved for collection and compilation.
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Maharashtra has five coastal districts and the revenue department and local authorities have been directed by the state CZMA to identify koliwadas (fishermen colonies) and open spaces in compliance with the CRZ Notification, 2011.
The directions issued by MoEF under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, were placed before MCZMA for identification of violations. MCZMA has its own website and says identification of violations in non-metropolitan areas could be completed in the stipulated time, but for the other stretches, time up to December would be required.
The Orissa government has said it has yet to place the MoEF’s directions before its CZMA and needs a year for completion of the exercise on identification of violations. The West Bengal government has initiated a field survey for identification of violations.