By Matters India Reporter
Kochi, Dec 3, 2022: The Kerala High Court has sought government opinion on a private firm’s demand for deploying federal forces to protect its under construction international seaport that is facing fierce protest from fisherfolk.
The court direction came during the hearing of a contempt petition filed by Adani group against the Kerala police’s failure to implement an earlier court order to provide adequate protection to the construction site and the workers there.
The Adani group urged the court to direct the federal government to deploy its forces so that it could continue the construction work at Adani Vizhinjam International Seaport in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district.
The court partially consented to the private firm’s demand and ordered both the federal and the Kerala governments to submit their replies on December 7 when the matter would be taken up for hearing.
The court’s November 2 order came at a time when Kerala’s Communist-led coalition government revealed its opposition to the protesters. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has publicly warned the protesters.
Speaking at a December 1 government function in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital, Vijayan said his government would not abandon the seaport project.
Maintaining that the protest would tarnish Kerala’s image, the chief minister asserted that his government would not succumb to any pressure.
Meanwhile, the state government also stepped up its pressure on the protesters by registering six criminal cases against Archbishop Thomas J Netto of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese. The protest is spearheaded by the archdiocese.
The charges against the prelate are conspiracy, incitement to violence and attempt to murder, and trespassing among others.
The cases were registered in connection with the violence at the protest venue on November 26 and the attack on Vizhinjam police station the following day.
The police have also registered similar cases against several priests.
The November 27 violence at the police station led to injuries to 90 protesters and 36 police personnel. The police have also registered a case against 3,000 people in this connection.
“Our bishops, priests and other fishermen and their family members were charged with fake cases.” Father Eugene H Pereira, the convener of the protests, told Matters India on December 2.
“Our bishops and most of the priests named in the cases were not even present when the violence took place,” he said.
He alleged that the cases against the prelate and the priests were part of a government conspiracy to weaken the protest with police help. The priest said the protest is for “the very survival of fishermen and their families.”
Father Pereira regretted that those supporting the fisherfolk are being labeled as traitors or anti-nationals who oppose development of the state.
The fishermen resorted to the protest after the government refused to listen to their genuine demands for rehabilitation and restatement of those who have lost their houses after the port construction started, the priest explained.
He said they would not call off their protest until the state government accepts their seven-point charter of demands including halting the construction work for three months and conducting an impartial social impact assessment.
Although the protest entered its 136th day, the “government has failed to provide any written assurance to the protestors other than mere lip service and now it is trying to break it through provocation and violence,” Father Pereira alleged.
Father Jacob G Palakkappilly, the spokesperson of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, has questioned the chief minister’s silence over the issue until the police filed “false cases” against the archbishops, priests and the poor fishermen.
The priest appealed to the chief minister and his ministers to visit a warehouse where the families of whose houses were submerged in the seawater after port construction started.
The protesters said nearly 500 families have lost their houses and other belongings forcing them to stay in the unhygienic warehouse since 2015 when the port construction began.
The government had promised to compensate them in case of loss due to the port construction and a 4.75 billion rupee package was announced for their rehabilitation, but nothing has been done yet leaving them to fend for themselves.
“Nobody would have protested if the government had given them what was promised before the port project started,” Father Palakkappilly said and added that, “It is the duty of the state to protect the life and property of every citizen.”
But in this case, the state seems only interested in protecting the interest of a billionaire businessman and can’t see the tears of women, children of fishermen who lose everything on each passing day, Father Palakkappilly bemoaned.