Islands of West Bengal - Nayachar, Sagar Island, Lohachara Island, Ghoramara Island, Henry Island (Paperback)

Chapters: Nayachar, Sagar Island, Lohachara Island, Ghoramara Island, Henry Island. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Nayachar - The Bengali word char means a strip of sandy land rising out of the bed of a river or the sea above water-level. Naya means new. In December 1987, then land and land reforms minister Benoy Chowdhury had ordered the island handed over to the fisheries department. The order was carried out in March 1988. Benfish, the official agency of the fisheries department, undertook its development. The island was renamed Meendwip, meaning fish island, but nothing much seems to have happened. In government files, the island is uninhabited although there are around 2,500 people living on the island, mostly as encroachers. Seven years ago 13 fishery cooperatives were set up, 315 ponds were dug and many of the 400 families on the island work in these. The rest catch fish on their own, either in the river or in small ditches that fill up with small fish during high tide. The government or fisheries department never gave them any right to the land or ponds. They were only allowed to fish around. Some 200 fishermen arrive every morning on the ferry service, work in the co-operatives and leave in the evening. In 2007, the fisheries department has even ended the contracts with the cooperatives. The state Fisheries Department has demanded Rs 220 million from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDe for winding up its project at Nayachar, as it has to repay a loan it had taken from Government of India for the purpose. The Government of India introduced the concept of chemical hubs, calling them Mega-Chemical Industrial Estates (MCIES) in 2005, but a year later enlarged it and introduced the concept of Petroleum, Chemicals ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=13101898