Fishermen in Karaikal have apparently succeeded in persuading the residents of Karkalacherry to extend their support for a project of the Puducherry government to extend the width of the fishing harbour.
There has been a headway in the talks held between the fishers and the residents of Karkalacherry hamlet. The fishers, on their part, assured Karkalacherry residents that the project would not cause them any discomfort. “Our main objective, which the residents of Karkalacherry also now share, is that the project should not be grounded at any cost,” Mahendran, Panchayatdar of Kilinjamedu said.
The current capacity of the harbour is not sufficient to anchor the over 300 mechanised boats. The expansion will pave way for accommodating more number of mechanised boats, Mr. Mahendran said.
Though relieved over the dredging activity in the Arasalar estuary through which several hundreds of anchored boats enter the river, the fishers observe that the pace of work has to be faster.
It was after a stiff protest by fishers of 12 hamlets during September that the Puducherry government made a budgetary allocation for removing the accumulated silt. An allocation of ₹ 2.5 crore was made and the tender process was also expedited. “There is no problem during the rainy season. But during the summer months, moving boats to the sea and back would be an ordeal for the fishers. We get into deep financial straits when the boats get damaged when they hit the surface of the estuary bed,” Mr. Mahendran said. In the absence of constant water flow in the estuary, the fishers say they get pushed into a situation of waiting for tides for carrying out their fishing activities. They have also sought use of higher-capacity machinery to complete the dredging activity in time.
