The Centre is planning to enact a law that will ensure the rights of the fishing community on sea and coast and to ensure their livelihood security. The proposed piece of legislation to be tabled in Parliament in the coming winter session would be on the lines of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006, Jairam Ramesh, environment and forest minister, said here on Wednesday.
He also announced the establishment of a national centre for sustainable coastal zone management in Anna University. The minister said, ?The Centre will help fishers and their families improve their living standard and cope better with climate change and its consequences.??
Ramesh was in Chennai to chair a public consultation on the MS Swaminathan Committee report titled ?Final Frontier: agenda to protect the ecosystem and habitat of India?s coast for conservation and livelihood security?. The four-member committee had submitted its report in July, 2009. Public consultations were being organised in many coastal centres by the Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) on behalf of the environment ministry.
The committee had recommended to let lapse the controversial Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) Notification 2008 and to incorporate amendments as recommended in the existing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 1991 for better coastal management. The minister said in CRZ the only thing that mattered to the environment ministry and the government was fishermen and their families. ?I am not interested in five-star hotels, nor in villas and resorts and tourist lodges on the coast. If needed, we will pull them down. Our only concern is the fishermen and their livelihood security. Only with their consent any amendment to the CRZ Notification 1991 will be made.??