MANGALORE, Jul 12 (The Hindu): The Union Government appears to be keen on dropping the controversial Coastal Zone Management (CMZ) notification, which will lapse on July 22.
Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh told a delegation of the National Fish-workers’ Forum in New Delhi recently that the Union Government would be dropping the notification. The Mangalore-based secretary of the forum Vasudev Boloor was part of the delegation.
The draft notification, which aims at replacing the existing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) of 1991, has been criticised for its proposal to allow airports and other major developmental activities on the Indian coast and dubbed as pro-industry and anti-fishermen.
A parliamentary committee had recommended that the CMZ notification be withheld till the concerns of the fishing communities were addressed.
The committees on Science and Technology, and Forests and Environment, had said that the new notification denied the fishing communities their right of access to oceans. The committee criticised the Ministry for not circulating the draft notification in regional languages.
The committee said: “CRZ is still a preferred legislation to CMZ notification.” It was felt that CMZ notification was a replacement of CRZ but with greater possibilities of being misused. The committee recommended “bottom-up approach” to formulation of the important policy pointing out that the “local coastal communities almost unanimously voiced that protection of coastal ecology and recognition of basic rights and livelihood of local communities over the sea and the coast should be at the heart of any coastal zone planning.”
Mr. Boloor said that the Parliamentary Committee, headed by V. Maitreyan, had recommended a comprehensive legislation that protected the rights of the fishing communities instead of issuing a mere notification by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).
Mr. Boloor told The Hindu on Saturday that a memorandum was submitted to Mr. Ramesh, pointing out the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee, and the Minister had categorically stated that the CMZ notification would be dropped.
The delegation met Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar and Minister of State for Agriculture K.V. Thomas, both of whom had assured the delegation that the Ministry had agreed to consider the waiver of bank loans of small scale traditional fishermen and women.
The delegation had urged the President, Pratibha Patil, to set up a separate Ministry for fisheries as the sector was presently being covered by a number of Ministries and departments. “The President listened with interest to the various problems faced by the fishing communities,” Mr. Boloor said.