The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : 60 cents not enough to settle 470 families: fishermen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

60 cents not enough to settle 470 families: fishermen

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, JAN. 11 . A heated argument is going on at a local fish auction centre at Kovalam. Virtually everyone is part of the argument. It is clear in a while that they are all on the same side and are merely raising their voice, upset over the site allotted for resettling them.

"In the morning, the Village Administrative Officer informed us that we were allotted 60 cents near the Buckingham canal," says Sikander, husband of the Kovalam village panchayat president. "How can you settle 470 families in that land," asks Narayanan, a fisherman and social worker, who routinely struggles to match the meagre aid that trickles in with the surging demands of his community.

About two dozen fishermen around him say this is only a small part of the problem. "We would rather get washed away by the sea than get drowned by the canal," says an agitated V. Thulasingham. "Every year the canal swells and overflows into salt pans. Why does the Government want us to move to a place near the saltpans and the canal, when there is land right here in the village."

Tempers ran high since this morning over the manner in which the Government handled the problems of the village, which is close to a luxury resort hotel. Though the Collector and other officials visited the village repeatedly, there was no discussion with the fishermen on their needs — what kind of aid they require, when it should be given and to whom. "We heard a lot of talk that the Government will consult us on all moves. Why is it doing nothing when we have given so many representations on alternative places where we could be resettled," asks K. Jayaprakash.

This, more than anything else, hurts the fishermen. They submitted a memorandum to the Sub-Collector. In it, they pointed to at least three pieces of land. One was a two-and-a-half acre land belonging to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments close to the Moolasuthi Amman temple plus an acre of poromboke land nearby and two acres near the Kailash nagar temple and a 69-cent government poromboke land close by.

By afternoon there was a consensus: Since the Government did not accede to their demand, they would get into a direct action. This was a simple affair. The community descended on the Moolasuthi temple and started chopping down eucalyptus trees. "By evening, we will get the place ready and put up our huts," one of them said.

Officials in Chennai, who claimed they were not aware of this case, said fishermen tended to get back to the seafront, despite the alternative sites given to them. The concern now was to allot them a place to put up temporary structures. The rehabilitation part would be addressed later when allotment of a permanent place would be done.

Till the tsunami hit the village on December 26, 2004, Kovalam was a model village with a vibrant community-based organisation and people's participation in development. This was the pilgrim-centre village that banned plastics long before the former Udhagamadalam Collector, Supriya Sahu, banned them from the hill station. The village has a large number of women self-help groups (around 100), and the locals have contributed to cleaning up a pond and beautifying the village.

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