The fishery planning committee (FPC) constituted by the state government has been tasked to undertake a detailed survey of the CRZ belt within 100m to 200m from the high tide line to identify housing needs and land ownership of traditional fishing community. Individual proposals from the traditional fishermen for construction of dwelling units in the CRZ belt will be permitted on priority, based on the survey, according to director of environment and climate change, Dashrath Redkar. The state government shall notify fishing villages wherein foreshore facilities, he said in a notification issued on Thursday. The committee has to complete the exercise in 60 days. The FPC is also mandated to study the genuine needs of the major fishing villages in terms of the facilities needed and prepare indicative plan for the same, duly superimposed on the respective cadastral scale village CRZ maps.
The survey will help in identification of fishermen houses in fishing wards, existing fishing infrastructure, need for additional infrastructure, location of net mending sheds, canoes, etc, with the assistance of taluka level committees constituted by the department. The FPC consists of representatives of GCZMA, directorate of fisheries and “three knowledgeable representative of the fishermen community,” the notification stated. The committee headed by the director of environment, has the following as members: Henrique D’Mello (Goenche Ramponkaracho Ekvott), Ashok Dhuri (Akhil Goa Kashtraiya Pagui Samaj), C Chodankar (Fishermen Cooperative Association) and representative of directorate of fisheries. FPC was constituted based on the recommendation of the state-level committee set up earlier for preparing a draft plan titled – Comprehensive plan for fishermen community living in CRZ. In the draft plan, the committee has recommended that the dwelling units of fishermen community can be considered for regularization as per Clause 6(d) of the CRZ Notification, 2011. It also recommended to regularise dwelling units located within 200 to 500m and to permit maximum possible extension of their units in accordance to the TCP regulations.
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