CHENNAI: About 1,000 fishermen from 15 villages around Pazhaverkadu laid a siege to the Larsen & Toubro Ship Building & Port Company premises, gheraoing the officials and stalling ongoing construction works for a day on Friday from dawn to dusk.
The shipyard, 20 km off the shores of Pazhaverkadu in Kattupalli village in Tiruvallur district, is a joint venture between the Central government and L&T.
The project was started in 2010 and the company was said to have deposited stone gravels to the length of 1.5 kms into the sea, making fishing waters very shallow. This, according to the local fishermen, caused environmental degradation, endangering fishing activities and rendering about 10,000 fishermen jobless. The fishermen said that the annual revenue from prawn culture in these waters goes up to anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore.
Agitated over the activities of company, the fishermen and their leaders vented their grievances to the company officials in the presence of the tahsildar and revenue divisional officer. The fishermen said that a tripartite meeting was held in the presence of the Tiruvallur Collector two months ago and the villagers were promised 1,750 jobs in lieu of their loss of fishing activities.
As the L&T honchos didn’t stick to their word, irate villagers from all the 15 villages blocked the road in front of the shipyard and stalled the day’s work. Police security was beefed up at the spot.
The president of the local fishermen’s association Ramachandran, secretary Manoharan and treasurer Siloar Mani averred that the protest would continue till their just demands were met. Paranthaman, a pro-fishermen activist, stated that apart from L&T, Chennai Water Desalination Plant, Ennore, the NTPC thermal power plant near the seashores of Kattuppalli and Ennore localities caused severe water pollution due to draining of industrial effluents. L&T officials refused to comment on the issue, neither did they give any assurance to the fishermen.