Beemapally fishers oppose exclusion from project

The fishing community in Beemapally region is sore at the alleged neglect meted out by the State government in rehabilitating them in safer zones.

Having borne the brunt of several calamities in recent years, the region has lost several houses to coastal erosion. While their loss is comparable to that faced in other places along the coastal belt, what has angered the residents is their exclusion from the apartment complex being constructed at Muttathara to rehabilitate fisherfolk and their families.

The government had recently decided to allot the flats to families in the fishing villages of Valiyathura, Cheriyathura, Valiyathope and Kochuthope, who resided within 50 metres from the shoreline. However, fishermen of Beemapally and nearby areas claimed that their names figured in the preliminary list of beneficiaries that had been prepared during the previous UDF government rule.

Thiruvananthapuram Corporation councillor Beemapally Rasheed, who represents Beemapally ward, alleged that the residents of the region were left in the lurch without reason.

“Close to 70 families from the area had been included in the beneficiary list for the project seven years ago. In the aftermath of the Ockhi calamity, close to 200 families in the region required immediate rehabilitation. Three rows of houses had been damaged in the region over the years. Under such circumstances, excluding them from the Muttathara project is condemnable,” Mr. Rasheed said.

An action council, chaired by Mr. Rasheed, is preparing to launch an agitation against the government’s stance. “We are all for rehabilitating the fishing communities in the other areas where there has been large-scale destruction. However, those who have been left out of the ambit of the project must also be protected,” he added.

Mr. Rasheed asked the government to build another apartment to rehabilitate fishermen from Beemapally on a vacant plot close to the Muttathara complex. The foundation stone for the proposed project should be laid at the same time as the handing over of keys to the completed flats. The action council will hold a token agitation in front of the office of the Deputy Director of Fisheries in Kamaleswaram on May 28.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V.K. Prasanth, who considered the agitation “uncalled for,” said that the government and the Corporation were committed to identifying a suitable plot to rehabilitate the residents of Beempally, He, however, opposed the proposal to construct the apartment close to the sewerage treatment plant at Muttathara. “The particular area that has been proposed is uninhabitable. It could inconvenience the same beneficiaries later on,” he pointed out.