CM assures fishers of govt. support to tide over troubles due to port development
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government has prioritised protecting the welfare of those families affected by Vizhinjam port development.
Tabling a rule 300 statement in the Assembly after reaching a rapprochement with the Latin Catholic Church-backed anti-port agitators on Tuesday, Mr. Vijayan said the government constituted district and State-level committees to monitor the rehabilitation of families displaced by port development. The Chief Secretary and the Secretary, Ports, would helm the panels.
Mr. Vijayan detailed the agreement terms. The government would complete the construction of modern multistorey 625-sq ft apartments for displaced fishers by 2024.
It would identify and fence an expansive site near the beach for fishers to store their boats and fishing gear. It would underwrite the rent of families who lost their dwellings to the encroaching sea and port development by paying them a monthly honorarium of ₹5,500.
The government would subsidise the purchase of diesel, LPG, and petrol-powered outboard engines to insulate sea-faring fishers from the prohibitive price of kerosene. It would compensate fishers who lost working days due to the vagaries of the weather. The independent expert committee studying coastal erosion would regularly interact with fishers.
The Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, would study how to mitigate the choppy seas that caused fishing boats to capsize near the Muthalapozhy estuary.
(Fishers had pointed out the formation of sand banks as the leading cause and demanded periodical dredging. Several fishers had drowned at the bay over the years.)
Mr. Vijayan highlighted Vizhinjam’s proximity to international shipping lanes, its naturally deep littoral waters that required scarce dredging and the port’s potential for catapulting Kerala into a new era of economic growth and prosperity to justify why the government was insistent on the project’s completion.
He said the government had agreed to fishers’ demands, except for the requirement that the administration halt port construction till an independent committee comprehensively studied the environmental and social impact of the international harbour.
Mr. Vijayan lauded the police for showing admirable restraint and maturely responding to the Vizhinjam police station attack by anti-port activists allied under the Vizhinjam Action Council (VAC) banner on November 27.
He had also rejected the Opposition’s demand to re-examine the cases registered against Church leaders and insisted that the law take its course.
