THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has decided to publish the satellite map of buffer zone areas around forest land and extend the deadline to submit complaints on it by two weeks to January 7. A high-level meeting, chaired by the chief minister, on Tuesday also decided to seek more time from the Supreme Court to submit a new buffer zone report.
The Union government has already requested the SC to accept the ESZ reports that some state governments have submitted before its June 3 verdict. Kerala will follow suit, sources said. They said Kerala had submitted its proposals, recommending zero buffer zones in populated areas, to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change’s (MoEF) expert committee before the SC verdict came out.
The sources said there are about 50,000 constructions in the ESZ spreading over 87 panchayats. The government has entrusted an expert committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Thottathil Radhakrishnan, to conduct a field survey and come up with the data to convince the SC that it’s not practical to declare buffer zones in a rapidly urbanizing state like Kerala.
The public can submit additional information about the satellite map to the government through the panchayat secretaries. They can also be submitted directly to the forest department. The government will constitute a group of officials from revenue, forest and local self government departments to examine the details through field surveys. To ensure that no one is excluded, it has also been decided to form a committee comprising people’s representatives to collect the complaints from the public.
The expert committee has instructed the government to immediately convince the public about its pro-people stand of no buffer zone in inhabited areas. To start the help desk at local level and speed up the field survey, an online meeting of revenue, forest and local self government ministers and officials will be held on Wednesday.
MORE TIME TO BE SOUGHT TO SUBMIT NEW REPORT
The high-level meeting on Tuesday decided to seek more time from the Supreme Court to submit a new buffer zone report