Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

CPI(M) demands fishing jetty near Gangavaram port

VISAKHAPATNAM: The State Government must consider the just demand of the Gangavaram fishermen community and immediately provide a fishing jetty adjacent to the private port, demanded district committee of CPI (M) on Friday.

As the Government failed to concede this demand in spite of continued agitation by the fishermen, a delegation of fishermen would present a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil at the airport during her visit to the city on Saturday, CPI (M) district secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao said at a press conference here.

The fishermen were not against Gangavaram port but only wanted their connection to the sea not snapped. The jetty provided near Yarada was nine kilometres away and was not convenient to them as they had to travel 18 km every time they went for fishing. The traditional fishermen would live near the sea but the Government was determined to uproot them to please the private port investor, Mr. Narasinga Rao alleged.

Fishing jetty was provided near every major and minor port in the country but in case of Gangavaram it was not so. The promise of jobs and other benefits was not fulfilled and the agitation by the fishermen, supported by the non-Congress political parties was being crushed by using the police force, resulting in the death of a fisherman and jailing of many, he said. The allowance to the families at Gangavaram was also stopped.

To prevent Gangavaram villagers from entering the sea, the port management constructed a wall leading to detention of villagers in their own village.

The Gangavaram villagers lost their livelihood as they could not go for fishing anymore and reached a situation where they were forced to buy fish they were catching and supplying to markets in the past, the CPI (M) leader said.

During a survey conducted by Fishermen Union, the DYFI, CITU andd AIDWA, at Gangavaram village it was found that all most all the villagers were in debts. Out of the 315 families 238 were without any work, only 19 were going for fishing from Yarada jetty that too once in a week, the rest could get earth work or road work, for only three days in a week. As many as 161 families had ‘mortgaged’ their white ration cards and were thus losing benefits of all welfare measures associated with the ration cards.

Every family was in debt. While 143 families have a debt burden of Rs. 20,000 each, 126 families face a debt of less than Rs. 50,000 each and 46 families have a debt of more than Rs. 50,000 each.

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