The Coastal Agency for Development and Liberation (CADAL), an initiative of Kerala Region Latin Catholic Council, has urged the Centre to place the draft policy on Blue Economy (sustainable use of ocean resources), for wider consultations.
In a letter addressed to the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the organisation said the policy would have many implications on the marine communities and marine ecology. “The draft needs to be discussed with the people/ fishers and fishing communities who will have to undergo untold miseries by way of coastal erosion, fish resource depletion and drastic ecological disasters in the sea and the sea coast. It will affect the life, livelihood and the very existence of fishing communities in the country,” it said, requesting that the policy be put on hold for some time to enable discussions once the scourge of the pandemic was over.
In a press release, the agency said that the draft policy was published on February 17 and the last date for giving opinions was February 27, which it said was too short a period to discuss something with far-reaching consequences as this.
