MUMBAI: Opposing the Vadhavan Port project in Palghar district, fishermen and villagers of Varor and Vadhavan entered the sea and stayed there for several hours as part of their ‘Jal samadhi andolan’ on Monday. Fishermen’s representatives have also decided not to attend a meeting called by the state government on Wednesday to discuss their rehabilitation.
“Initially, discussions were held in the name of compensation, and now meetings are being directly organised regarding the rehabilitation policy. The government’s shift from compensation to rehabilitation amounts to a betrayal of the fishing community. “Our organisation opposes the very establishment of the Vadhavan Port Project. When we oppose the project itself, holding policy discussions based on its consequences amounts to indirectly accepting the inevitability of the project. This is absolutely unacceptable to us. This is a golden region for fisheries. Fish come here to breed and grow and then migrate to other areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Pomfret is the state fish of Maharashtra but the source is in Gujarat. Ghol is a state fish of Gujarat but the source is Maharashtra. The maximum impact of Vadhavan Port will be on fishermen of Palghar and Dahanu.
“There is a report by the Central Marine Fisheries Institute that 20,809 fisherfolk will lose their livelihood. Tandel said two months ago, the government had proposed to pay fishermen a one-time settlement of ₹ 14 lakh in four instalments over four years.
Devendra Tandel of the All-Maharashtra Fishermen Action Committee (AMFAC) said that many organisations would boycott the meeting. “The AMFAC strongly condemns the stand taken by the government regarding the issues of the fishing community affected by the Vadhavan Port project,” he said in a letter to the government. Tandel said that the fishing community had never given its consent to the Vadhavan Port project, and initiating the rehabilitation process by presuming that fishermen would be displaced was tantamount to stabbing the fishing community in the back. “Both compensation and rehabilitation are unacceptable,” he said. “If Vadhavan Port comes up, there will be no fishing zone over 17,000 acres,” said Tandel. “Big fishermen earn ₹ 50 to ₹ 80 lakh annually, while fishermen in Uttan earn up to ₹ one crore annually,” he said, adding that while the government first proposed a one-time meagre settlement, it was now talking about rehabilitation, which was yet to be conveyed to them. “The government is also talking about setting up a chemical park here, which will be totally detrimental to fishing,” he said.
