Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai has condemned the Tamil Nadu Government over the closure of the Tamil Nadu Coastal Sustainable Livelihood Association.
In a statement issued by him in this regard, “The Congress together with the party destroyed Kachchathivi, thereby betraying the fishing community of Tamil Nadu for forty years when the fishermen brothers of Tamil Nadu were being attacked and killed by the Sri Lankan Navy, and the Congress-led central government coalition looked on without taking any action to protect the fishermen of Tamil Nadu. DMK has now committed another betrayal.
DMK is not new to pretending to care about the people of Tamil Nadu only when elections are coming and trying to deceive people from all walks of life. In July last year, Tamil Nadu BJP launched En Man En People Walk in Rameswaram.
Unable to bear the reception it received among the people of Rameswaram, Chief Minister Stalin immediately went to Rameswaram and made some announcements for the fishing community. Two years after coming to power, the DMK, which had ignored the fishermen community, was the whole reason for the launch of Tamil Nadu BJP’s En Man En People Walk.
It is now certain that Chief Minister Stalin made some announcements because the public could not bear to turn to the BJP.
n the last year 2004, the villagers, including the government department, non-government organizations, private organizations and community volunteers, worked together to overcome the damage caused by natural hazards and compensate the economic losses for the fisherfolk whose livelihoods were affected by the tsunami attack, under the Tamil Nadu Development and Local Government Department.
Last December 19, 2020, Tamil Nadu Coastal Sustainable Livelihood Association was launched as per Government Order No. 215. Through this association, people living in 236 coastal panchayats across Tamil Nadu were benefited. The association was revived only for the Rameswaram Fishermen’s Conference organized by Chief Minister Stalin last year and then shut down again.
The Tamil Nadu Coastal Sustainable Livelihood Society, which has been suspended for the past three years without any work, has been declared closed on 15.03.2024, the day before the parliamentary elections.
As per the decree number 6660T dated 15.03.2024, without specifying the reasons, this association formed for the welfare of the people of the fishing community has been shut down and it is strongly condemned.
Already, when three cases against the workers and beneficiaries of this association are pending in the Madurai branch of the Madras High Court, the hasty decision of the DMK government to close this association raises serious doubts.
Since 2008, for about 15 years, the financial expenses incurred for the welfare of the fishermen community affected by the tsunami and for the measures taken to avoid being affected by natural calamities in the future, have been wasted due to this decision of the DMK government.
The DMK government is obliged to inform the people living along the coasts about the reason behind the decision to close down the Tamil Nadu Coastal Sustainable Livelihood Society without any reason.
The people of the fishing community are benefiting greatly through the programs such as Matsya Sampada brought by the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of the people of the fishing community.
Their livelihood is protected. The Tamil Nadu government, which is supposed to act as a supporter of the central government, is blocking it, and shutting down the functioning welfare societies shows that the DMK has no interest in improving the livelihood of the people living in the coastal areas.
Against this anarchic action of the DMK government, by not giving permission to the protest announced by the people of the fishing community, and threatening to arrest them, also reveals the deception of the DMK towards the fishing brothers.
On behalf of the Tamil Nadu BJP, we strongly condemn the DMK government’s action against the people of the fishing community and demand that the Tamil Nadu Coastal Sustainable Livelihood Association be closed down by the Ordinance No. 66 immediately.
