About 50 workers of the Communist Party of India (CPI) were arrested when they staged a sit-in protest at the office of the Director of Department of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare on Wednesday against the delay in opening the Modern Hygienic Fish Market on the East Coast Road.
The two-storey, fully air-conditioned structure, spread over 37,886 square feet was built by the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) with World Bank assistance of ₹13.5 crore under the Tsunami Emergency Rehabilitation Project.
‘Pleas ignored’
The agitators led by K. Sethu Selvam, State council member of CPI raised slogans against the Fisheries Department. Though repeated representations were made to the authorities concerned to open the building for public use it remains locked due to procedural delay on the part of the Fisheries Department, he said.
Though the Oulgaret Municipality has identified the list of beneficiaries for allotment of stalls, apathy on the part of the Fisheries Department has resulted in inordinate delay, he said.
The protesters were arrested and later released in the evening.
