Ramesh Chennithala wants government to retract from amending Wetland Act

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Friday demanded the state government to retract from its move to bring out some cardinal changes in the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act. The state assembly is about to conclude the discussions on the amendment bill on Monday and pass it even as the opposition had been crying foul over the changes proposed.

"The government should retract from presenting the bill. The amendment proposed on the 2008 act passed by the V S Achuthanandan government would throw away large tracts of ecologically sensitive and environmentally important paddy land and wet land to the mercy of land mafia. The state government should backtrack from the move to pass the bill on Monday. The new changes ensure that paddy land and wet land can be reclaimed by government as well as private groups," Chennithala said.

According to the opposition, the government attempt to legalise all sorts of land filling was not acceptable. The opposition members in the house had been arguing that government, while acquiring and reclaiming ecologically sensitive land for development work, should do it diligently after necessary discussions with all stakeholders. However, the move to exclude private investors from the ambit of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act could not be accepted. "By carving out a new category of land, other than paddy land, wet land and dry land, the government is trying to present a large part of state's greenery to the land sharks. The new category, un-notified land, would bring irretrievable damage to large swaths of paddy and wetland, which form part of the un-notified category," Chennithala said.

Congress leader V M Sudheeran has also come out against the amendment bill, saying that the changes proposed would derail the very purpose of the original act.

"Paddy cultivation in Kerala is depleting horrendously. The area of cultivable paddy land in the state was 1,96,870 hectors in 2015-16. It has further come down to 1,71,398 ha as per 2016-17 statistics. Kerala had 8.76 lakh ha of paddy land in 1975-76 period. It was in this background that the ruling and opposition parties passed the act unanimously in 2008. The changes now mooted by the state government would only help private investors," Sudheeran said.