The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has embarked on drafting a legislation to protect from demolition the houses of traditional fishermen and others who had built their houses in violation of the CRZ notification, 1991, as in the case of Goa, where the communities were up in arms against the state.

Disclosing this to media persons here Goa’s Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira said the Union Ministry had already forwarded the draft legislation to the Union Law Ministry for seeking its opinion so that the legislation would be fool-proof against any contest in the court of law in future.

Piqued at the statement of former minister Matanhy Saldanha yesterday, condemning the State and the Centre for failure to protect the fishermen’s houses from demolition in Goa, the minister said threatening to launch a ‘violent agitation’ would serve no purpose but will affect the innocent workers.

He categorically stated that no house of the fishermen and other traditional people in the 105-km long coastal belt was demolished so far. Those demolished were mere ‘structures’ and blaming the state in this regard was of no use.

Mr Matanhy should instead have assisted the panchayats to identify the houses built before the central notification came into force and helped the state administration to tider over the situation. Merely going to media would not serve any purpose, he said.

The minister further enumerated various measures the state government had undertaken to pursue with the Centre in this regard on different occasions through letters and personal meetings with the Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh over the years.

As a minister in the BJP government in Goa, Mr Matanhy failed to pursue with the governments both at the state and the Centre and now crying hoarse was to fool the public, he added.

The state, he said, was helpless as the notification was issued by the Centre. As such, the state had been often pursuing the Centre to ensure that the houses of traditional communities were protected in Goa.

Merely blaming UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and chief minister Digambar kamat was of no use, as they continue to abide by their promise of protecting the houses of the traditional communities along the coastline in the maritime states, he added.

UNI