Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Changes in draft CZM guidelines sought

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government has sought comprehensive changes in the draft Coastal Zone Management (CZM) norms published by the Centre.

Responding to a calling attention by Babu Prasad (Congress) in the Assembly on Friday, Fisheries Minister S. Sarma said the government had submitted to the Centre a series of proposals aimed at ensuring that the CZM norms did not hit the livelihood of fishing communities or prevent them from constructing houses on the coastal stretches of the country.

The State government had prepared its objections to various provisions of the draft norms after holding two rounds of consultation with trade unions in the fisheries sector in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, he added.

Mr. Sarma said the State had taken exception to the draft proposal to place the territorial waters up to 22 kilometres under the CZM norms and had told the Centre that this should not in any way affect fishing rights of indigenous communities.

It had also told the Centre that the local bodies and the fishing community must have sufficient say in the planning and development processes along the coastal areas.

He said the State was particularly concerned about the decision to have a ‘setback line’ along the coast which would mean that the fisher folk would be able to have houses only outside the ‘setback line.’

Since fishermen families cannot live away from the sea, the State had urged the Centre to see to it that such a measure did not affect their habitation needs. It had also taken an equally serious view of the proposal to drop the existing ‘No Development Zones’ in the coastal stretches as this would result in indiscriminate construction activity in the coastal areas leading to alienation of the fishing communities, the Fisheries Minister added.

Replying to a specific question from Mr. Babu Prasad, the Minister said the government would issue strict instructions to officials if any instance of construction activities, forming part of the tsunami rehabilitation programme, being disallowed was brought to its notice.

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