KOZHIKODE: The State Government's programme for rehabilitation of fishermen families to implement the first phase of its coastal afforestation programme is ready, Minister for Fisheries S. Sarma announced here on Monday.

Inaugurating a workshop on coastal afforestation programme being launched jointly by the Forest and Fisheries departments here, Mr. Sarma said under the proposed programme, each family would get a house on five cents of land. A sum of Rs. 1 lakh has been earmarked for every house.

Besides, a scheme envisaging an expenditure of Rs. 84 crore for electrification of the coastal area, Rs. 140 crore for supply of drinking water, and Rs. 100 crore for transportation facilities would be implemented in nine coastal districts.

Special package

A Rs. 991-crore special package of scheme had been submitted for this purpose to the Centre by the Chief Minister during his recent visit to Delhi.

Besides setting up a protective forest cover along the coast, families of fishermen who would be rehabilitated from places prone to sea erosion would be provided all facilities in their new settlement. A committee of local people headed by the ward-member would supervise the implementation of the scheme.

Its overall monitoring at the State level would be done by a steering committee chaired by the Chief Minister.

Growing of mangrove vegetation would be given priority since it was known to cushion the impact of tsunami and other natural disasters that caused havoc in coastal region.

People's participation

Forest Minister Binoy Viswom, who presided over the function, remarked that people's participation would hold the key to the success of the programme. Mayor M. Bhaskaran; A. Pradeep Kumar and P.M.A. Salam, MLAs; district panchayat president K.P. Kunhammed; Koyilandy muncipal chairman K. Dasan; Chief Conservator of Forests Lakhvinder Singh; Assistant Principal Chief Forest Conservator K.K. Sreevastava and Fisheries Director G. Hari Kumar spoke.

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