Former Balikuda MLA Umesh Swain came down heavily on the Jagatsinghpur district administration for taking a demolition drive in prawn gheries in Erasama and Balikuda coastline.
He said such an act has been discouraging prawn and marine fish farmers in the district, besides inviting miseries for hundreds of gheri growers and its dependents. In this regard, Swain has apprised Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, seeking his intervention. On the other hand, the civil administration has given a clarification on Tuesday on Swain’s allegations, citing that the prawn gheri demolition has been undertaken following an order of the Orissa High Court and different provisions enshrined under environmental laws to protect coastal environment and forest.
A tug of war between Swain and the administration began when the gheri demolition drive started in Balikuda coastline in mid-August. As many as 500 acres of forest land had been detected under Balikuda seaside villages under Mala and Marichapur revenue circles that some villagers had been utilising for prawn gheri, violating the Coastal Regulation Zone [CRZ], the Coastal Aquaculture Act [CAA] and the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1974. Swain’s alleged that the administration before enforcing OLR Act, Section 4 and 6, had not heard the grievances of the prawn growers properly and on the contrary, had imposed hefty fines on them. Moreover, the OLR Act, Section 8[A], stipulates that those who had been occupying and encroaching upon Government land for over 3-4 decades are eligible to get land record for the land in their name.
But the administration in this case disobeyed the rules, charged Swain. Moreover, Swain said that prawn cultivation in the seashore is a hereditary occupation of coastal residents and such move would discourage the farming and lead to unemployment problem in the area.