THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Central government has approved the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) submitted by the state, which will ease the concerns of one million people residing in 10 coastal districts. The decision of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will ease the restrictions placed on construction activities on the sea and backwater coasts.
The Centre’s decision will particularly be beneficial in 66 panchayats where there were stringent regulations on construction activities. In 2019, the Union government had issued a notification to allow further relaxation in the Coastal Management Act.
Following this, the state government appointed a three-member expert panel to study these concessions to make them completely beneficial to the state
The CZMP draft was prepared based on the report of the expert panel, discussions with the Central government and collection of 33,000 complaints and suggestions from the pubic.
The draft and the amendments suggested by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) were filed before the Centre for final approval.
As per the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification, CRZ II areas have least restrictions in terms of construction and other activities.