Kerala ministers meet Cardinal Cleemis to resolve snowballing buffer zone protests

Thiruvananthapuram: To pacify the farmers who are up in arms against the government over the buffer zone survey, ministers Roshy Augustine and Antony Raju met Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church on Tuesday.

Earlier, during the anti-port protest in Vizhinjam, the government had approached the cardinal for intervention. It is believed that he helped in resolving the matter.

Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has alleged that the aerial survey conducted to study the impact of the proposed 1 km eco-sensitive zone has left thousands of structures. They argue that the data collected is insufficient to argue in the Supreme Court and seek relaxation on buffer zone.

The ministers met the cardinal at the Bishop’s house in Pattom here. Though the ministers denied that the meeting was regarding buffer zone, Roshy said that the cardinal “usually gets involved in all such matters” and there was no need for the government to request him to do so.

Augustine said the government's intention was to rectify the "shortcomings" in the satellite survey and provide necessary help to the people and added that even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has made it clear there was no need for concern.

He also said that the intention behind ordering of a survey by the top court was to ascertain whether any mining activities were going on within one kilometer of forests and sanctuaries, were wildlife and forests being destroyed and was the biodiversity of the area undamaged.

"According to me, no mining activity is going on close to such areas, no one was hunting wildlife by going into the forests or sanctuaries and no harm has been caused to the biodiversity," Augustine claimed.

Meanwhile, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said such issues were part of the day-to-day administration of the elected government and did not come under his purview.

However, if there were some violation of the law or departure from prescribed norms, then he will "come into the picture", Khan told reporters at Kozhikode.

He said that presently no one has approached him on the issue with a complaint or a petition and if someone does, he will forward the same to the concerned authorities who are responsible for taking the decision.

"I try to ensure that no petition goes unaddressed," he said.

Vijayan, on Monday, called the high level meeting in the wake of sharp criticism of his government's allegedly "hasty" satellite survey of forest areas and threats of agitations by the Congress and some religious organisations.

The Congress had threatened that agitations would be held, similar to those against the SilverLine project, if the Left government did not set aside its alleged "indifference" and address the concerns of the people on the buffer zone issue.

Vijayan and Kerala Forest Minister A K Saseendran have also admitted that the satellite survey does not include everything and they also have said that it would not be the final report that is placed before the Supreme Court or the Centre.

The objections against the satellite survey report of the state government have been gaining momentum over the last few days with locals of affected areas, Congress party and Christian religious organisations terming the survey as "inaccurate" and "lacking clarity".

The Supreme Court in June had directed that a buffer zone of 1-km be maintained around forests and sanctuaries across the country. Against this, both the Centre and the Kerala government have moved review pleas in the apex court.

With PTI inputs