Forum call for creating fisheries disaster management fund to compensate losses during natural calamities; Wants CRZ 2019 notification withdrawn. National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) has called for withdrawal of all Sagarmala programme plans as it will root out livelihoods of traditional fish workers. According to NFF, the Sagarmala projects would only benefit big corporates. At the executive committee of NFF held at the government tourist Home, Uppalam, Pondicherry-1, it was resolved that a separate Fisheries and Welfare Ministry has to be formed to solve the problems faced by the fishing communities in India. NFF Vice Chairperson Olencio Simoes congratulated new government for the mandate given to them and hoped that the government would work for the communities working to protect the natural resources and the communities dependent on them. NFF has demanded that the new Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2019 issued by the Government of India be withdrawn with immediate effect as dilution of CRZ is in violation of Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 2019 will be like a dark era for India as the coastal communities like fishermen, toddy tappers, farmers, tourism, etc will be displaced as the No Development Zone is reduced to 50 mts from 500 mts, Simoes said. Under Blue revolution the government plans to facilitate sea-weed, pearl farming, aquaculture etc; Bharatmala projects plans to build 60,000 km road network; Sagarmala programme plans to double port capacity, build coastal cities, coastal transport, coastal industrialization, inland waterways etc. All these are completely against the interest of the coastal environment and coastal communities, he said. NFF noted that cyclone like Fani created devastation in Odisha and wants Central government to intervene and provide immediate compensation to the fishing communities so that they can go back to the sea. NFF stated that Ockhi, Gaja, Fani cyclone etc have cause huge loss to the fishing communities of India and therefore it is the need of the hour that the present government creates a separate Fisheries disaster management fund to compensate their losses during natural calamities. The draft Mariculture policy is indeed a huge concern to the communities as it is another ploy which will be affecting the livelihoods of the small scale fishworkers and is a move to privatise the waters and to hand it over to the corporates. Vice-Chairperson Olencio Simoes said that NFF will be soon convening to implement the decisions and also update the Ministry its demands to echo the sentiments of the fishworking communities in the ground.