The Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala threw weight being its protest by fisherfolk outside Vizhinjam port on Thursday, 18 August, who are pushing for their seven-point charter of demands on various issues of livelihood.
The UDF said that this would be the first issue they raise when the state assembly convenes for a session next week.
State Assembly Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan, who visited the protest site, told the protesting fishermen that in the past, the coastal areas in eastern and south-eastern India used to be in danger due to adverse weather, but now the phenomenon is moving to Kerala.
Satheesan claimed that this was evident when several square kilometres of coastal land in the state capital were encroached upon by the sea and added that a comprehensive, long-term solution is the only fix for this problem.
"Therefore, when the assembly convenes next week, this is the first issue that we will raise in the House," he told protesters.
Third Day of Protests at Vizhinjam Port
Meanwhile, protests entered its third day at the Vizhinjam port and the situation began heating up after the agitators pushed some barricades onto a temporary shelter in close proximity for deployed police personnel and brought its roof down.
Subsequently as the police struggled to replace the barricades, protestors managed to breach it and move a few meters towards the port entrance, before they were blocked by the police.
However, rather than moving ahead with force, some of the leaders of the protest, the priests of the Latin Archdiocese, spoke to senior police officers at the protest site and requested the to allow a peaceful march towards the gate of the port, after which the group would return to where the barricades and sit peacefully.
While the officers initially hesitated, owed to the presence of thousands of protestors, reassurances from the priests led to the officers relenting and allowing the protesters to march up to the tetrapods placed near the gates, climb on top of them and raise their flags.
Subsequently, they returned to the area of the initial staging of their agitation as promised by the priests.
Amidst the protests, state Fisheries Minister V Abdurahiman told reporters in Delhi that the protestors were invited for talks but did not responds.
His claims of the protestors being invited for talks were termed as 'falsehood' by the protest leaders, one of whom told the media that if the government was willing to consider their demands, they were ready for talks.
(With inputs from PTI)
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