KOCHI: The Syro-Malabar Public Affairs Commission has criticised the state government’s failure to address the concerns raised by the people regarding the final Ecological Sensitive Areas (ESA) notification.
It alleged that the state government has failed to take transparent action. The criticism was raised in a missive by Mar Andrews Thazhath, chairman of the commission.
“Even after the stipulated 60-day period given to the public to submit objections against the sixth draft notification published on July 31, 2024, the state government has committed a serious lapse in making available accurate ESA maps to the public. Despite the court order, the state government has not yet published the Malayalam translation of the draft notification,” he said.
The 8,590.69 sq. km ESA that the government has now recommended as the reserve forest area in 98 villages is a repetition of the errors in the Oommen V Oommen Committee report and the documents including the report issued by the state government in 2018, he added.
“The report that the government claims to have given a month ago was submitted without discussing it in the grama sabhas. This too should be discussed urgently in the grama sabhas and the mistake should be corrected. The government should clarify whether the ESA area is known as revenue villages in the current report as well. If so, it should be ready to correct it. It should be clarified why the last report the state government claims to have submitted has not been made available to the public,” said the bishop.
“While no other states have requested a final notification, Kerala’s hasty request for a special notification for Kerala in Parliament without correcting the mistakes and submitting a final report raises many doubts. We expect a fair approach from the state government on the ESA issue,” he said.