By Matters India Reporter
Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 7, 2022: Fisherfolk’s protest against an under construction international seaport in Kerala has been called off after nearly five months, paving the way for re-starting the stalled construction work.
Announcing the end of the stir on December 6, Father Eugene Pereira, the convener of the protest, said they decided to end agitation not because they were satisfied with the steps taken by the government but because it had reached a certain poin.
The priest of the Trivandrum Latin archdiocese also maintained that it was a temporary truce indicating that if the government failed to fulfil the promises they might consider restarting the protest.
The construction work of the 75 billion rupee Adani Vizhinjam International Seaport came to a halt after the fisherpeople, mostly Catholics, launched an indefinite protest on July 20 under the leadership of bishops and priests of archdiocese with a seven point charter of demands.
The protesters said after the port construction started in 2015 close to 500 fishermen lost they houses to seawater and were forced to live in unhygienic warehouses and other places. The government has failed to fulfil its promise of their resettlement and rehabilitation.
Their other key demands included halting the construction work for three months and conducting an impartial social impact assessment on the project involving scientist from both the government and their sides.
Kerosene subsidy, compensation for their work loss on account of government warning against going to fishing, and shifting those in warehouses to rented accommodations were other demands.
The government, however, refused to accept their demands in full instead agreed to provide kerosene subsidy and compensation for the loss of wages.
The government also refused consider the remand to halt the construction work and include the protesters’ representatives in the panel appointed to study its impact.
The government also agreed to provide 5,500 rupees as monthly rent to those who living in the ware houses to shit rented accommodations as against their demand for 8,000 rupees. The government also suggested them that remaining 2,500 rupees would be paid from the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) fund of Adani group which they refused.
The protesters came under pressure to call off the protest following violence unleashed in the last week of November including an attack on the Vizhinjam police station in which around 100 protesters and more than 30 police personnel were wound.
The violence and the subsequent developments portrayed their 140-day protest as against the development of the state and gave it communal colour as most protesters were Catholics, who were led by bishops and priests.
The police also registered six criminal cases against Archbishop Thomas J Netto of Trivandrum, his Auxiliary Bishop Christudas Rajappan and several priests and 3,000 others, including women and children.
Such pressures forced the protesters to go for a temporary truce as they feared the government would crush the protest based the fake cases and other tactics such as painting it a communal protest of Christians against the state’s development.