The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Building self-reliant coastal communities

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Monday, Dec 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Building self-reliant coastal communities

Staff Reporter

Nagercoil: The one-day orientation programme organised by International Fund for Asian Development recently evoked a very good response.

Inaugurating the programme, Collector Rajendra Kumar said that the goal was to build self reliant coastal communities, resilent to shocks and able to manage their livelihoods in a sustainable manner and the objective was to develop viable enterprises and resource management systems, owned and operated by poor families affected by tsunami guided by local communities and institutions. Under this programme, around 1.33 lakh people would be covered, living in 167 habitations and 13 village panchayats including Agastheeswaram, Rajakkamangalam, Kurunthencode, Killiyoor and Munchirai. The target groups were coastal fishers using beach launched craft, wage labour employed in the fisheries and agriculture sectors, small-scale women fish vendors and processors, other marginalized occupation groups (seashell workers) etc.

The Government has allotted the sum of Rs. 298.65 crore for the implementation of various projects including the sum of Rs. 42.73 crore for coastal area resource management, Rs. 157.14 crore for rural finance and risk transfer instruments, Rs. 78.68 crore for employment generation and skill training, Rs. 2.14 crore for community based sea safety and disaster management and Rs. 17.96 crore for programme management. Of the total amount of Rs. 298.65 crore, the sum of Rs.130.25 crore would be contributed by the International Fund for Asian Development Agency, Rs. 14.85 crore by the State government, Rs. 108.52 crore by bank/micro finance institution and Rs. 45.03 crore from beneficiary contribution.

The key organizations were the Rural Development Department, Women’s Development Corporation, Revenue Department, Department of Fisheries, Agriculture Department, Department of Animal Husbandry and Non-governmental organizations and other service providers.

It has also been decided to form 30 cluster resource centres under Coastal Area Resource Management and each cluster would be manned by a cluster co-ordinator, cluster facilitator and cluster business promoter. Moreover under fisheries resource management it has been decided to promote responsible and safe fishing practices and to create awareness through workshops. Further 50 fish marketing societies would be formed and boat repair and OBM centres would also be established in different parts of the coastal areas of the district, Collector said.

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