THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Harbour Engineering Department failing to keep its promise to cut open the breakwater for the smooth sailing of fishing vessels at Muthalapozhi harbour, the fishermen are gearing up to relaunch their protest from Tuesday.
Owing to accumulation of sand, the harbour mouth is on the verge of yet another closure. According to fishermen, if they fail to launch dredging activities immediately, the harbour mouth will be closed within the next two days.
Chairman of Muthalapozhi Matsya Thozhilali Samithi, Sulaiman A, said that it’s been nine days since the harbour engineering department brought the dredger from Azheekal. “We withdrew our protest not because of their empty promises. Many houses and regions were under flood threat. We didn’t expect this much delay in launching the dredging activities,” said Sulaiman. He said that the fishermen are on a warpath.
“They don’t care about us or our livelihood and they are repeatedly fooling us. This time they brought a defunct dredger and they are unable to fix it. We will launch a stiff protest. We will not allow them to cut open the sandbar this time for flood control. Our families and children are struggling because of no work,” he said.
An official of the Harbour Engineering Department said that efforts are under way to fix the dredger. “We cannot operate it without fixing the technical issues. Its a German-made dredger and proper maintenance by the company will further delay the process.
Hence we are using local expertise to fix the dredger. We are hoping to begin the dredging activities by Tuesday afternoon,” the official said. Previously, the fishermen had launched indefinite strikes following the shutting down of the harbour owing to sand accumulation.