FIAN (Food First Information and Action Network) International is going to conduct a public hearing on the problems the people of Kolleru Lake area are facing here on Sunday.
FIAN general secretary T.Ravi Kumar said over 200 persons from different habitations in and around the ecological hotspot will depose in the public hearing. A jury headed by Chennai-based Human Rights lawyer Guruswamy will record the depositions and forward them to the United Nations through FIAN International.
Mr Ravi Kumar said the primary problem the people were facing was the loss of livelihood. They were being denied their fundamental right to food.
ADVERTISEMENT
Drinking water was another acute problem in Kolleru area. Men were being forced to migrate to other areas for a livelihood leading to family disturbances. The people of the Lake lived happily with enough food and clean, unpolluted water, but their lives have become miserable now, he said. The traditional ways of fishing they practiced was sufficient to fill their stomachs. Now various government agencies were preventing them from eking out a livelihood in a traditional way.
As much as 70 per cent of the three lakh endemic population were facing a problem of livelihood. The State which should safeguard the interests of the people was depriving them of the right to land also, he said.