With the deadline to submit the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) ending on August 31, the state government has decided to seek an extension of three months from the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC). We will file the affidavit before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to seek another three months to complete the CZMP and submit it, environment minister Nilesh Cabral told TOI. He said that panchayats that have approached his ministry, will be given assistance to prepare their CZMP. Experts would be assigned to them on or before Ganesh Chaturthi, he said Cabral had started taluka-level consultations on the CZMP with the people, but since ruckus broke out at most places, the plan to hold more hearings was shelved. Because of my initiative, today people of the state have come to know what the CZMP is, he said. The environment minister said that every MLA has to ensure that the CZMP for their respective constituency is complete. If people do not prepare their own CZMP then we will submit the plan prepared by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), he said. The state government is currently preparing the CZMP based on the 2011 CRZ notification by the MoEFCC. It is yet to prepare the CZMP based on the 2019 CRZ notification. The first CZMP in Goa was prepared in 1996. However, this was done without survey numbers, and was considered a base plan for the 2011 CZMP. But when the public began getting notices for demolition of houses, then chief minister Manohar Parrikar took the plan seriously and asked NCSCM to prepare the 2016 CZMP.