Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on Feb 4, 2012:
CHENNAI: Fishermen families hailing from Koraikuppam fishing hamlet near Pulicat Lake on Friday served a one-month ultimatum to the government authorities to finalise their rehabilitation plans.
Addressing the demonstration organised by South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association (SIFWA) near Chennai Collectorate, Raji Chettiyar, the fishing hamlet’s head said, “In 2004, we suffered and lost six lives to the natural disaster tsunami. For the past seven years, we have been suffering without proper rehabilitation, thanks to government apathy.”“We have waited for the past several years but nothing has been done to rehabilitate us. Hence, we have issued a one-month deadline to the government to end our sufferings,” Raji said. “If the government fails to show any kind of interest in settling our perennial problem of housing near the sea, fishermen families will be forced to adopt new strategies to pressurise the authorities,” Raji warned.Members of 130 fishermen families from the fishing hamlet, including dozens of school-going students from the coastal village, participated in the demonstration seeking proper rehabilitation from the authorities.Talking to City Express, K Bharathi, president of SIFWA, said, “Since the issue of rehabilitation was seen as a paramount problem for them for the last seven years, there was a tremendous response from the villagers for the token demonstration.”Bharathi added, “The families are not asking anything big from the state government. They just want proper rehabilitation without disturbing their traditional rights of living near the sea.”Meanwhile, SIFWA has decided to send reminder letters to the CM J Jayalalithaa, Tiruvallur District Collector and Tsunami rehabilitation officials in the coming days.
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