The fishermen’s grievance day meeting held here on Friday after a gap of nine months witnessed heated arguments over the Coastal Regulatory Zone mapping.
Raising this issue at the meeting, the fishermen said the CRZ mapping had been done without properly consulting the fishermen. Houses, churches, grottos, fish auction centre buildings, etc., had not been included in the map. Instead, the proposed map favoured only the rich having their properties close to the shore.
Moreover, the three members nominated to the CRZ map preparation committee had not done it in a transparent manner. “The committee, which was formed to elicit suggestions from fishermen before the CRZ map is finalised, has been constituted in a clandestine manner as no proper announcement was made by the officials on selection of members to the committee. The officials should explain to the fishermen as to how they selected the three persons to the committee,” the fishermen said.
When the fishermen refused to accept the explanation given by officials from the fisheries and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, commotion prevailed for a while until Additional Superintendent of Police Karthikeyan urged the fishermen to speak one by one to record their views.
Even as normalcy returned, Collector K. Senthil Raj, who had to participate in a function attended by Fisheries Minister Anita R. Radhakrishnan and to accompany Commissioner for Revenue Administration during his inspection in Tiruchendur, came to the meeting at 12.30 p.m. When the fishermen appealed to the Collector to organise the meeting every month, Mr. Senthil Raj agreed to it.
Manoharan from Amali Nagar, who was spearheading the agitation in the coastal hamlet demanding the construction of groynes, uttered a few words with political overtone even while presenting his case on CRZ mapping. After the Collector warned him against saying anything with a political motive, he became silent and the officials gave their reply on the mapping issue.
Mr. Senthil Raj assured that the CRZ mapping would be finalised only after soliciting views and suggestions of the fishermen and clarified that the groyne at Amali Nagar would be constructed once the project was cleared by the National Green Tribunal.
Published - September 22, 2023 07:50 pm IST
