PANJIM: NGO Goencho Avaaz has expressed grave apprehension and protested the draft coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notification 2018 claiming it will prove detrimental and destructive to the fragile socio-economic and environmental fabric of the entire coast of India. Members of the organisation at a press conference on Saturday alleged that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is working contrary to its actual task and facilitating the destruction of the environment and ecology. “The restrictions of no development zone being reduced from 100 to 50 mtrs for tidal influenced water bodies and the other relaxations proposed as per the draft CRZ notification will destroy the livelihood of the fishing community, destroy salt pans, fish drying areas, boat parking, khazan lands, other related coastal activity, etc, along the over 3,200 coastal villages across the country,” co-convener Capt Viriato Fernandes said, addressing the media on Saturday. He also cited a ‘disturbing fact’ wherein the Environment Director has written to various departments to get a feedback from the civic bodies, local communities and social organisations. Fernandes argued it revealed a criminal motive of the officials concerned to prevent the operation of constitutional safeguards by blatant abuse of their administrative powers. “An independent enquiry at the highest level be immediately directed into this grave assault of the Constitution of our country and exemplary punishment be meted out to the guilty,” he added. The NGO demanded that the State government immediately responds to the people’s genuine demands for a safe and secure future by accepting that the draft notification is a grave environmental threat and asked that the government protect the land and rivers of Goa.