THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is an advantage for land sharks, who are out on the prowl again, as the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA), which is supposed to ensure the quality of coastal environment and prevent land-grabbing in the area, has run out of its term. The KCZMA was constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on July 28, 2008 for a period of three years. Even though the term of the authority ran out a good three months ago, it is learnt that the state government is yet to write to the MoEF for the reconstitution of the same. Even before the authority ran out of its term, the KCZMA remained headless right from the time the Science and Technology Principal Secretary, C T S Nair resigned in early July. The Principal Secretary of the Science and Technology Department is the ex-officio chairman of the authority. The last meeting of the KCZMA was held in the last week of May. Meanwhile, many coastal zone regulation cases which had to be dealt with in a time-bound manner as well as cases that needed to be forwarded to the MoEF are gathering dust in the KCZMA office at the Sasthra Bhavan. “We receive as many as 5 applications a week on a regular basis for examination of project proposals, for changes or modifications in classification of coastal regulation zones and so on. In a month, it will touch something like 25 applications. So you can imagine the amount of files that now needs to be looked into,” sources said. Apart from these, the authority has to look into cases of alleged violations of the provisions of the Environment Protection Act on the basis of a complaint or on a suo moto basis and review such cases involving violations. Many of the violators have now found a loophole to escape from the clutches of law as the govs have failed to reconstitute a body, most significant to environment protection. The routine activities of the authority such as identification of ecologically sensitive areas in the coastal zone and formulating area-specific management plans and the identification of economically important stretches in the coastal zone and creating integrated management plans for the same, remain in limbo. Even though the portfolio comes under CM Oommen Chandy, Science and Technology has been headless for the past several months. Even if the MoEF reconstitutes the KCZMA, it will be a futile exercise if the State Govt does not make an immediate appointment to the post of Science and Technology Principal Secretary.
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