Alleging that the new Costal Regulatory Zone Notification, 2018 was issued in violation of the spirit of the Constitution, the Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Tuesday demanded that the notification be withdrawn with immediate effect. The new CRZ notification will result in the coast being pillaged. If the notification is not reversed, it will devastate the fragile environment, undermining the livelihood of coastal communities. A fresh, transparent public consultation must be conducted to draft a Traditional Coastal and Marine Fisherfolk (Protection of Rights) Bill on the lines of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, HRF members told the media here. Beneficial to capitalists’ This new notification, they said, dilutes some salutary provisions of the CRZ, 2011 notification. It intends to benefit private capitalists who are already viewing it as a bonanza, HRF State Executive Committee member G. Rohith said. Nowhere has the new notification addressed the concerns of fisherfolks and it will be catastrophic for India’s 7,500-km coastline. Almost this entire stretch is used by fishermen for livelihood and if unbridled development’ activity is permitted, as the new notification allows, there will be no coastline left for these communities, he explained. According to Y. Rajesh of HRF, the notification will also result in rapid and mindless gorwth of industrial, real estate and tourism projects which will destroy the coastal ecology. The government’s contention that this notification is a good blend of development and sustainability holds a little water. In fact, the functioning of the Shailesh Nayak Committee on whose recommendations the new notification was issued has been arbitrary and undemocratic, Mr. Rajesh alleged. The committee’s report was finalised based on the discussions with the State governments with big coastlines. There was no transparent consultation with the coastal communities that depend on coastal and marine resources for earning their livelihood, he claimed. Dilution of powers’ According to HRF AP&TS Coordination Committee member V.S. Krishna, the most serious concern in the new notification is the dilution and delegation of powers to State Coastal Zone Management Authorities (SCZMAs) from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The omission of the hazard line in the notification is very worrying. The hazard line is now limited to disaster management planning and is removed from the ambit of No Development Zone’. We urge all democratic forces in the country to oppose this regressive notification tooth and nail, he said.