Fisherwomen under the banner of Progressive Organisation for Women (POW) here on Wednesday urged the Union and State Governments to keep at bay the polluting industries which upset the fragile coastal ecosystem.
They staged a novel demonstration in front of the Collectorate here on the occasion of the International Women's day in protest against the “pro-corporate”' land acquisition policy and highly polluting industries such as pharma units, coming up on the salt marshes, mangroves, wetlands, estuaries, and bays upsetting the very coastal ecosystem.
It was the SCs, STs and fishermen who were dependent upon the coastal ecosystem who were losing their livelihood because of to severe marine biodiversity loss caused by polluting industries, said POW vice-president B. Rama Sundari.
The authorities should desist from playing with the lives of the toiling masses, including fishermen who eked out a living by going into the sea, said its State general secretary B. Padma. Except for port-related development, no other industry should be allowed on Andhra Pradesh's vast coastline, they emphasised and remarked, “'we fear more the corporate land sharks than the sharks we encounter on the high seas.”
Oil spill
Making a mention of the the massive oil spill after two ships collided near Chennai recently, they feared manifold damage to marine life from untreated industrial effluents over a period.
Energetic artistes from Arundoaya, the cultural wing of the CPI(ML) New Democracy were the cynosure of all eyes as they sang and danced, highlighting the woes of the toiling masses.
