Fish workers' group ‘reject' pre-draft CRZ 2010 notification
Date:19/06/2010 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/06/19/stories/2010061952201700.htm Our Bureau Kochi, June 18 The National Coastal Protection Campaign (NCPC), a collective comprising of a broad range of fish-worker groups including the National Fish-workers Forum (NFF), fish-worker support organisations and environmental groups jointly rejected the Ministry of Environment's ‘pre-draft' CRZ 2010 notification, saying that it is anti-people, anti-environment and pro-industry. Most of the concerns and issues raised during the public consultation process undertaken by the Environment Ministry between August 2009 and March 2010 have been ignored in the ‘pre-draft', despite assurances from the Minister that these would be taken on board, Mr V.Vivekanandan, Convenor, NCPC said in a statement issued here. The contents of this pre-draft are extremely disappointing as it is grossly inadequate to control the rampant industrialisation on the Indian coastline. It also fails to address the dwelling and livelihood rights of the fishing community, providing only token concessions, he said. Mr T. Peter, President, Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation and Secretary, NFF pointed out that the Kerala fishermen have been demanding the right to construct houses 50 m landward of the High Tide Line. In the name of special dispensation for Kerala, he said that this is now proposed for all who can claim ‘local community' status. This will only further marginalise fishing communities who are unable to retain their lands in the face of competition from tourism lobbies and other interests, he added. Besides, many of the recommendations contained in the “Final Frontier Report”, submitted by the MS Swaminathan committee in 2009 have been completely ignored. On the issue of port development, the Swaminathan committee had recommended a moratorium on new ports until their cumulative impacts were studied. However, the pre-draft makes no effort to control the growth of ports through a zoning system that keeps port developments at least 25 km away from the most critical habitats (CRZ 1 areas), as suggested by many. The issue of the carrying capacity of the coastline with reference to developmental projects is completely missing. The proliferation of mega ports near CRZ1 and other ecologically sensitive areas has been a matter of controversy for some time now, from Dhamra on the eastern coast, to Mundra and Tadri on the west, Mr Sanjiv Gopal, Oceans Campaign Manager, Greenpeace India said. There are currently over 300 ports proposed along the coast, of which over 200 are notified. This would translate to roughly a port every 20-25 km. Besides its own impact, port development is invariably accompanied by other industries, power plants, railway lines, highways, hotels, SEZs, residential complexes, etc, that can have multiple detrimental impacts on the coast. Ms Matanhy Saldanha, Chairperson, National Fishworkers Forum, called upon the Ministry to incorporate the specific inputs that have been provided to them by groups such as NCPC and come out with a notification that strengthens not dilutes the protection of India's coasts and the communities that depend on them. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
