KANYAKUMARI: Fishermen in Kanyakumari district surrendered their boats, fishing gears and fish nets to the district collector here on Tuesday symbolising their protest against the International container transshipment terminal (ICTT) at Enayam near Colachel in the district.
Around 100 fishermen led by the leaders of South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF) gathered at the Kanyakumari district collector's office, shouted slogans against the Centre's Sagarmala project, to which ICTT at Enayam is a part, and said that consecutive governments both at the centre and the state have turned a deaf ear to the long woes of the fisher folks in Kanyakumari district.
“Having a coastline of 72-km covering 48 villages in the eastern and western coast from Arockiyapuram to Neerodi, the fisher folks in Kanyakumari district have been demanding a reserved assembly constituency for fishermen. The major national parties and the Dravidian parties, however, are least bothered about fulfilling this demand of the fishermen,” complained the agitated fishermen.
“If the governments are planning to evacuate fisher folks from their natural habitat by destroying our livelihood in the name of development, what is the use of us having boats and fishing gears? So we have decided to surrender all our fishing equipment to the government through the district collector,” said Fr Chuchil, general secretary of South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF).
