Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Marina project will hit our livelihood, say fishermen

By Our Staff Reporter

Chennai Feb. 1. Fishermen held a demonstration today protesting the proposed "Marina beautification project" of the State Government, stating that the project threatened their livelihood, and appealed to the Chief Minister to withdraw the scheme.

They said over one lakh fisherfolk lived in hamlets along the Triplicane and Tiruvanmiyur coastline and had been carrying on their vocation for generations together. The fishermen, belonging to the Mullikuppam Meenavargal Panchayat Sabha, said the scheme, if implemented, would lead to their eviction, literally pushing them to the brink.

Even those local fishermen, who had been displaced from 25 hamlets after the Sriharikota rocket launch centre, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research at Kalpakkam and the Ennore Power projects came up, were not properly rehabilitated. "They continue to suffer a lot even after being relocated at Pazhaverkadu, Thazankuppam and Kovalam", they pointed out.

The fishermen at Pazhaverkadu were feeling insecure due to frequent group clashes. "Many people lost their lives", they said, adding several attempts to bring about peace were of no avail.

They also recalled that six persons died in a police firing in 1985 when the then Government attempted to remove the catamarans from the Marina. Though the Government had allayed their apprehension that the Marina beautification scheme would not involve eviction of fishermen in the area, the fisherfolk did not seem to be convinced of the assurance and were still afraid of losing their homes. Recently, the All India Fisher workers Sangam too observed a fast demanding a halt to removal of fishermen boats in the name of beautification. Many social activists and NGOs felt that the scheme would disrupt the life of the economically weaker sections of the society. Slum dwellers, evicted from the city, were deprived of resettlement.

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