‘Amendments to CRZ will affect fisheries sector’

 
Noted environmental activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar said here on Tuesday that the Union Government's move to implement the recommendations of the M.S.Swaminathan Committee on coastal zone management would prove disastrous for the fishermen community in the country. She was inaugurating a dharna organized by the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhillai Federation in front of the Accountant-General's office here as part of a nationwide agitation by the National Fish Workers Forum. Ms.Patkar said the proposed reforms would undermine the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act of 1991, affecting the livelihood security of traditional fishermen. "Whose interests us the Centre trying to protect by extending the coastal management zone by 12 nautical miles?" she asked.Ms.Patkar alleged that the reforms would make it easy to legitimize the operations of tourist resorts constructed in violation of the coastal regulation norms. She said the Swaminathan Committee report was designed to protect the interests of tourist, industrial and sand-mining lobbies. She said the proposed special economic zones would have a detrimental effect on most coastal areas.

(The Hindu,7th  June  2007)