The draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ) notification published recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for public comments will replace the existing Costal Regulation Zone (CRZ) when it is finalised. Attempts to protect the coastal stretch started in 1991 when developments were regulated with respect to the high tide line. In 2004, the MoEF set up a committee under the Chairmanship of M.S. Swaminathan to review the existing rules and recommend changes and if ne cessary recast the coastal regulatory framework.

Centre asks State to return 141 hectare of land used for dumping ground The much-hyped state government delegation led by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh which made a presentation to the empowered group of ministers (EGOM) led by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to allot the 2,177 hectares of the salt pan land owned by the Centre for rehabilitating project-affected persons by various infrastructure projects failed to reach any consensus, according to official sources in the Mantralaya.

The proposed coastal industrial corridor by the Infrastructure Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd (INCAP) along the Andhra Pradesh coastline from Srikakulam to Nellore has attracted objections from the environmentalists, mass and some rights organisations.

The Coastal Corridor and SEZ Act would deprive the common man of his basic right to life, said the convenor of the Coastal Corridor Nirmana Vyatireka Porata Committee, Mr K.S. Chalam, and the state secretary of the Human Rights Forum, Mr V.S. Krishna. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, they said the 8-day Jagruti Jatha organised by both the organisations seeking scrapping of GO No. 34 and the SEZ Act, 2005, ended on Sunday.

The Industrial Coastal Corridor Vyatireka Porata Committee demanded the withdrawal of GO Ms No. 34, relating to the coastal corridor and Kakinada special economic zones. The committee will hold a public meeting at Visakhapatnam on May 3 to highlight the effects of these two on people and to take up an agitation for the cause of the affected. These details were disclosed by committee representative and state Human Rights Forum (HRF) secretary V.S. Krishna and others.

The 8-day Jatha campaigning against the coastal corridor and special economic zone (SEZ) entered the Vizag district at Rambilli on Thursday. The Jatha, being organised by Coastal Corridor Nirmana Vyatireka Porata Samithi is doing rounds of the villages of Rambilli and Achyutapuram mandals to be affected by the SEZ multi-product schemes.