The Hindu : Karnataka News : Fishermen oppose CMZ proposal

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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Fishermen oppose CMZ proposal

Special Correspondent

— Photo : R. Eswarraj

IN TROUBLED WATERS: National Fishermen’s Forum members staging a demonstration in Mangalore on Thursday in protest against the move to replace CRZ with CMZ.

MANGALORE: Various fishermen’s associations of Dakshina Kannada district and Udupi district protested against the Government’s move to scrap Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and replace it with Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) here on Thursday.

The fishermen leaders such as Loknath Bolar, Vasudeva Boloor, Madhava Thingalaya and many others spoke on the occasion and felt that the CMZ would open up the coastal areas for commercial activities.

The Coastal Karnataka Fishermen Action Committee sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to intervene and stop the CMZ as per the Dr. Swaminathan Committee report.

The federation complained in the letter that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had not registered many objections and complaints filed by various fishermen association and groups in this regard and only the Prime Minister could stop the “outrage” that would be unleashed on the coastal areas once the conversion took place.

The memorandum said: “Our coasts are being increasingly targeted for destructive development practices. In the line of it, the CRZ notification of 1991 was amended 19 times under pressure from commercial interests. Against this backdrop, doing away with the 1991 notification altogether, and introducing CZM in its place was nothing but a blatant effort to facilitate greater commercialisation of the coastal zone”.

The new zone, particularly CMZ II, would pave the way for the proliferation of Special Economic Zones, ports, tourist resorts, mining and similar activities in large areas of the coastal zone. It would trigger displacement of fishermen communities and the areas they had traditionally used for fishing, the memorandum said.

Coastal Karnataka Fishermen Action Committee president Loknath Bolar told The Hindu on the sidelines of the demonstration that the fishermen had requested the Prime Minister to initiate a comprehensive legislation.

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