THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hundreds of fishermen came out in protest and staged a blockade on the busy Anchuthengu-Perumathura Road on Thursday morning demanding immediate dredging at the infamous Muthalapozhi harbour mouth. Traffic in the area came to a halt following the protest, which was called off within a couple of hours after the officials concerned arrived at the scene and assured the protestors of launching dredging activities within four days. The fishermen had staged many minor protests in the past two months and decided to escalate the protest owing to inaction from the authorities.
According to fishermen, dredging activities at the harbour mouth was stalled in July last year. Sajeeb Sainudheen, vice-chairman of Muthalapozhi Avakasa Samrakshana Samithi, said that around 7,000 fishermen from Muthalapozhi to Poothura beach took part in the protest on Thursday. He said that in the past one week, around 9 boats suffered damages in the harbour mouth owing to sand accumulation.
“In the past three years, the harbour engineering department got around six crores in revenue from Muthalapozhi harbour. They couldn’t spend even 50 per cent of that revenue for dredging activities. They continue to put the blame on Gautam Adani and evade their responsibilities,” he said.
It is learned that as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Harbour Engineering Department (HED with Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd (AVPPL) back in 2018, it is the responsibility of the Adani Port to remove the sand accumulated in the harbour and maintain a depth of 5 metres to keep the channel at Muthalapozhi estuary navigable for fishing boats.
Last July, the Adani Port stalled the dredging activities and refused to continue with their responsibilities. Following this, after negotiations, the harbour department decided to undertake the dredging activities under the condition that AVPPL pay for the work. “It is a deposit work and AVPPL was supposed to hand over `2.05 crores. They deposited the money only on Wednesday evening. Considering the gravity of the issue, we invited tenders and the agency refused to conduct the dredging activities without the deposit. That is the cause for the delay,” said the official. The official said that dredger will be brought from Thrissur and the work will begin within four days.