CHENNAI: Nearly six years after the Ennore oil spill, the fishermen of Chennai and neighbouring districts who were affected will get the pending compensation of Rs 72 crore. The southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), while disposing of the review petition filed by the insurance company, said the joint committee appointed by the tribunal would oversee the distribution of compensation for verified beneficiaries and the amount will be paid from the bank guarantee available with the Department of Fisheries.
The tribunal allowed the shipping insurance company and fishing associations to be associated with the disbursement exercise. After two ships collided off Kamarajar Port in 2017 causing a major oil spill, 18 teams were constituted to assess the exact quantum of livelihood loss. Meanwhile, a petition was filed before the NGT, which directed the fisheries department to receive applications from affected fishermen.
After scrutiny of applications, a compensation proposal for Rs 240 crore to the affected fishermen of Tiruvallur, Chennai and Kanchipuram coastal districts has arrived. So far, the shipping insurance company has released Rs 156 crore towards compensation, of which Rs 131.29 crore was given to one lakh fishermen as part of first phase of compensation and Rs 10 crore was allocated for remediation projects and the remaining amount of Rs 72 crore have to be paid to affected fishers from the available bank guarantee amount of Rs 84 crore.
Meanwhile, a joint committee that was entrusted to follow on the remediation projects concluded that the condition of the affected areas due to the oil spill was now close to normal. Kamarajar port authorities and IOC teams have successfully completed stage-1 of the bio-remediation process for treating 184 tonnes of oil sludge and oil contaminated sand. All the environmental parameters at the bio-remediation site are currently within the permissible limit and no contamination was observed at the site, including ground water and soil quality.
