The Madras high court has given the state government four weeks to decide on a representation to commence delimitation proceedings in respect with fishing villages in 13 coastal districts in thestate and declare such villages as separate panchayats ahead of local body elections. A division bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the order on a PIL moved by Fisherman Care, a fishermen rights’ organization. According to the petitioner, there are 13 coastal districts in Tamil Nadu consisting of 608 fishing villages with apopulation of 9.24 lakh. In 1980, the Mandal Commission had recommended to include fishing community in the list ofcheduled castes/scheduled tribes and to carve out the areas of their concentration into separate constituencies at the time of delimitation and to create a separate ministry for their development, the petitioner said. But the government and the delimitation commission ignored the recommendations. Empowerment of fishing community by declaring their villages as panchayats has been denied, the petitioner added.
2018 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.