Claiming that the central government and the state government are cheating them by ‘forcing’ on them a faulty draft coastal zone management plan (CZMP), the villagers of Loutolim Sunday, during a special gram sabha held at the panchayat hall, collectively resolved to demand scrapping of the public hearing scheduled to be held by the government on July 7 at the Ravindra Bhavan in Margao.
The villagers resolved to begin a signature campaign with the help of local panchas to demand scrapping of the public hearing.
“The draft CZMP is a farce. It is surprising that this draft plan does not show the existing houses on the banks of River Zuari at Loutolim.  It also shows that there are no fishing activities in this area even though a lot of villagers are involved in fishing and dependant on it. The Chennai-based agency, which was involved in the preparation of the draft CZMP plan for Goa mysteriously showed River Zuari as River Mandovi on the draft plan. The authorities who were involved must be sacked. The government has proposed jetties, double tracking of South Western Railways, highway expansion, all this development is being taken up with the sole aim of promoting coal transportation,” the villagers shouted after carefully listening to the presentation on Sagarmala master plan presented by member of NGO ‘Rainbow Warriors’, Abijit Prabhudesai.
It is understood that the NGO managed to obtain the details through RTI.