The protests against the Adani’s International Deepwater Multipurpose seaport project in Kerala’s Vizhinjam port were called off on Friday, after the District Collector held talks with the protesters.
Protesters were demanding that the rehabilitation packages promised to them should be distributed before they would allow work to resume on the project. In a discussion held with Thiruvananthapuram District Collector K Vasuki on Friday, it was decided that the beneficiaries will be identified by November 30, and the compensation will be disbursed without delay.
“The major hindrance in implementing the package was the inability to rightly identify the beneficiaries. It has been decided at the meeting to identify them first,” said Reckon, a member of the Church Committee which took the leadership of the protest.
“The District Collector will monitor if steps are taken to follow up the implementation of the package. Almost all conditions put forward by us have been agreed,” he added.
Following this, the fisher community of the coastal village called off their protest.
It has also been decided to form a permanent supervisory committee to look into the grievances of the people who have been affected by the project. Initially it had been agreed to hold talks on October 30, but the protesters were adamant that they would call off the strike only after the talks. But the District Collector insisted that talks will be held only after calling off the strike. However the authorities later relented to the growing pressure to sort out the issue.
The protest was launched on October 24 allegedly owing to the failure of implementing the rehabilitation package. Apart from this, the protesters also alleged that the Adani group who is implementing the project didn’t keep the promise to absorb the local people in the work force for constructing the mega project. Their main grievance is that after the dredging of the project commenced it has affected their prime livelihood – fishing.