The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Coastal corridor opposed

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Thursday, Apr 24, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Coastal corridor opposed

Staff Reporter

Kakinada: The Traditional Fish Workers’ Union demanded that the State government shelve the proposal to develop the belt between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada into an industrial corridor, as it would badly affect the fishermen community.

Similarly, the government should desist from implementing certain provisions of the Coastal Zonal Management Act, which, it said, were detrimental to the lives of the fishermen.

Union’s district president M.A. Lateef stated in a press release that fishermen and women were under distress due to depleting catch and hostile living conditions. But the government was protecting the interests of industrialists whose sole motive appeared to be making profits at the cost of local fishing communities.

The fishermen community had to be given exclusive rights on marine wealth to some extent.

Otherwise, they would be pushed to extreme poverty by big businessmen, who can afford to undertake fishing on a massive scale and reap rich dividends thereof.

SEZ threat

The port-based Special Economic Zone (SEZ) proposed to be developed at Kakinada would seriously affect the livelihoods of the fishermen who would be required to move out of their dwellings from where they eke out a living by venturing into the sea.

The government should rethink the consequences of the SEZ before taking the next step. Mr. Lateef said that the proposed industrial corridor would cause irreparable damage to the ocean by way of marine pollution.

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