Within 10 days of publishing the draft amendments to the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 1991, the environment and forests ministry has published on its website the concept note on the proposed changes in 10 languages, including Konkani, Marathi, Telugu and Gujarati. The exercise is to enable the local people, particularly fishermen who are affected, to understand the proposed changes in their mothertongues.

The actual amendments are, however, yet to be published in all the languages of the coastal states as they are now available in only five regional languages, besides English. These are: Telugu, Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. Ministry sources said translation in other languages is taking time but they hope to mount the amendments in the remaining six languages within a week or so.

The amendments proposed may take yet another three or four months before they come into force as the ministry has invited suggestions from public and NGOs within 60 days on the draft notification before finalising it to replace the 1991 notification.

This is for the second time that the suggestions have been invited on amendments in the 1991 CRZ notification as an expert group headed by noted agriculture scientist Swaminathan has already examined the suggestions made earlier in the draft notification issued in 2008. The government has now trashed the 2008 draft and moved the 2010 draft as recommended by the Swaminathan group.

The proposed amendments provide for rules for construction of beach hotels and resorts and have special regulation in case of Goa and Mumbai. The amendments and a concept note on them are available on the ministry's website in English and other languages.