Kozhikode: Development planning should start with residents associations, eminent environmental activist Medha Patkar said on Monday. She stressed on the need for community-level planning as she inaugurated the sixth edition of Manorama Online – Malabar Gold Chuttuvattom Awards – a year-long event in which best performing residents associations in Kerala – at Govt Vocational Higher Secondary School, Nadakkave, Kozhikode.

She said a residence association as a local community has the right to take a decision on what should happen to their land, water, forest and minerals.

“Residents association, which is a smaller unit than the district unit, is the first and the foremost unit at which the development planning should take place. When residents association have representatives of all castes, creeds and communities, then that is also a great achievement,” Patkar said, calling residents associations the real local governments.

Proper decision in development planning is something that should be in the hands of the community and community should not be communal, should not be casteist, should not be gender based or discriminatory, she added. She was all praise for the role residents associations have played in food security and waste management.

Patkar, the champion of the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ movement said development motivated by profit alone is destructive.

“We are not against any and every good, not at all. But if a big tunnel is built in Uttarakhand's Himalayan mountain, what happens? Everywhere the tunnels are causing destruction. So if we think of any tunnel in any region of Western Ghats, we must really learn about the impacts,” she said.

She said it was unacceptable that drug abuse was increasing in Kerala.

Addressing the gathering, Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan said the Chuttuvattom award event has been upholding Malayala Manorama’s commitment towards society. He also urged the students in the audience to think about how can they fight the increasing drug menace in society.

Beena Philip, mayor, Kozhikode Corporation; Asher O, managing director - India operations, Malabar Group; Gireesh Kumar C, principal, GV HSS, Nadakkave, Anil Radhakrishnan, senior coordinating editor, Malayala Manorama; and Boby Paul, senior general manager - marketing, Manorama Online also spoke.

Patkar also led a tree planting ceremony on the school ground as part of the event. Ahead of the ceremony, she also interacted with the students of the school and shared her experiences as an activist.