Public hearing on new coastal zone management map deferred

The public hearing proposed on Wednesday on the new Coastal Zone Management Plan map has been postponed based on an undertaking by the Puducherry Coastal Zone Management Authority in the National Green Tribunal bench in Chennai that it would rectify omissions and put together a revised draft CZMP. The NGT bench comprising Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, Judicial Member and Satyagopal Korlapati, Expert Member, was hearing a plea by one N. Malayalathan to quash the current version of the Coastal Zone Management Plan Map and issue a direction to the authority to prepare a revised draft CZMP for Puducherry and Karaikal in strict compliance with the CRZ notification. The public hearing would be convened after presenting the revised Draft Coastal Zone Management Plan and publishing the same for public view. In a memorandum to the authorities, M. Ilango, N. Pougajendy and A. Kanagasabai, members of the District Coastal Zone Management Committee, it contended that the consultation was premature to convene as the coastal zone management map was incomplete and left out key land use spaces of fisher communities.