The Hindu Business Line : ‘Eco-restoration is first priority in Kuttanad’

Given the slow pace of progress in implementing several Centrally sponsored projects, there are apprehensions about execution of the project as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.

Our Bureau

Kochi, Oct. 2

The ecological restoration of the wetland area in Kuttanad is said to be the primary requirement before implementing other recommendations in the Rs 1,850-crore Dr M.S. Swaminathan Committee package for the overall development of the rice bowl of Kerala.

“The first recommendation of the Swaminathan Committee is strengthening of the ecological security of the area,” Father Thomas Peelanickal, Executive Director, Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi, said. But the State Government does not seem to have understood the importance of it, he said.

The committee report calls for halt to reclamation and encroachments on the backwaters, lakefront, canals, drains and public ponds. It also recommends removal of all identified encroachments after conducting public hearing in each panchayat. Demarcation of boundaries of Vembanad Lake and all waterways with appropriate landmarks and database from satellite imageries is also suggested.

The recommendations also include measures for salinity and flood management in the region by implementing major works to renovate and operate the Tanneermukkam Bund. Construction of Alapuzha-Changanacherry canal and completion of the unfinished sections of the canal with removal of all blocks, encroachments, land fillings etc have also been suggested.

Implementation of the recommendations involving a total investment of about Rs 1,850 crore is moving at a snail’s pace, Fr Thomas said. In fact, different components of the schemes in the recommendations have been included in the existing schemes of the relevant departments of the State Government. But these departments are understood to have no funds, he said.

Given the slow pace of progress in implementing several Centrally sponsored projects such as the Pampa Action Plan and the Vembanadu Wetland Project, there are apprehensions about execution of the project as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission, he said.

The most important concern here, the report said, is “compartmentalised functioning of not only departments under the government, but also the divisions within each department with no or rare coordination and cooperation.”

Fr Thomas said KVS wanted setting up of an autonomous body headed by an expert who knows the region for timely implementation of the recommendations. A meeting of the people of the region has been convened for Saturday aimed at mobililsing public opinion, he added.

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