Kerala farmers protest move to amend wetland bill

The amendment will also sabotage the proposed policy of the state government to promote agricultural growth and sustain the ecological system in the state, they say.

(Photo: ndtv)

Alappuzha:  Farmers in Alappuzha district are protesting a move to amend the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act 2008 saying it will further threaten state's paddy cultivation.

As the state reportedly plans to amend the existing law, social and agricultural organizations say the move will help big firms and land developers to fill paddy lands and wetland for industrial and business purposes.

The amendment will also sabotage the proposed policy of the state government to promote agricultural growth and sustain the ecological system in the state, they say.

The Act helped Alappuzha district to protect the paddy fields of Kuttanad and other parts of the district. The Kuttanad Vikasna Samithi and Pokkali Samrakshna Samithi have asked the government to withdraw its decision to make an amendment to the Act.

The made it illegal to fill paddy fields and wetland. Now the government is striving to make an amendment to help the private parties,” alleged Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi executive director Fr Thomas Peelianickal.

The protesters fear the amendment will help private parties to fill the paddy and wetland after paying the market price of the paddy land without nay ceiling on such ac while the existing law allows filling only upto 5 cents of land for the purpose of construction of houses.

Local Level Monitoring Committees (LLMCs) were also set up in villages in the state to monitor filling of paddy fields, with power to recommend filling for the purpose of building houses.

All these become irrelevant if the law is amended, the priest said adding that the move "aims to help private industrialists who are backing the Aranmula Airport project."

Pokkali Samrakshana Samithi general convener Francis Kalathunkal said that the new amendment will help the land mafia to fill more paddy lands and pokkali lands in the state.

“Pokkali farmers face crisis due to the vagaries of nature and the failure in the implementation of government policy of ‘alternate seasons of fish farming and paddy farming’ in pokkali lands. Rampant urbanisation in villages is shrinking the area of pokkali and paddy fields.

Source: New Indian Express