KERALA (UCAN): Fisherfolk protesting a multi-billion dollar port project in Kerala, India, announced plans to set up a seven-member committee to study the impact of the project on the coast of Kerala state.
The announcement came a week after the state government formed an experts’ committee to study the environmental and social impact of the Adani international seaport at Vizhinjam coast, near the capital Thiruvananthapuram.
“Our committee of eminent scientists will study the impact independently as the government did not include our representatives in its panel,” Father Eugine H Pereira, the general convener of the fisherfolk’s protest, said on October 14.
The state government announced its experts’ committee to be headed by M D Kudale, former additional director of Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, on October 7.
Though the government has directed its panel to interact with the protesters before finalising its report, the fisherfolk said they would not cooperate with the committee.
“We were promised that our representative will be included in the government’s committee. Our team will come out with its own findings,” Father Pereira said.
Our committee of eminent scientists will study the impact independently as the government did not include our representatives in its panel
Father Pereira
The priest alleged that without the fisherfolk’s representative, the committee was likely to come up with a report that was favourable to the government and the private player involved in building the port.
“It’s clear because the state government backtracked from its promise” of including protesters’ representatives in the government committee, Father Pereira added.
The affected people, under the leadership of bishops and priests from the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum, have been protesting against the project since July 20 [Sunday Examiner, August 21 and September 4].
The state government has so far ignored demands, which include suspending the project to study its environmental and social impact, rehabilitation of displaced people and employment for those who lost their livelihood, and compensation for all who suffered damage.
The protesting fisherfolk say some 500 of their number have lost houses due to increased coastal erosion since work on the project got underway in 2015.
Their peaceful protest intensified after they refused to vacate the port site in defiance of an order issued by the district authorities in September.
Even an order from the Kerala High Court directing that the tent erected by protestors on the road leading to the under-construction port site be immediately removed did not deter the fishermen.
“The court did not hear our side and passed the order, therefore, we will continue with our protest,” Father Pereira said.
The fishermen are planning protests in all the major towns of Thiruvananthapuram district on October 17 followed by similar action across other 13 districts of the state on October 19.
