Community leader K. Bharathi said the implementation of the Blue Flag beach scheme and the use of the Marina Loop Road for traffic movement already hindered their work.
“We don’t have space on beach sands to park our boats, store, and mend nets or sell fish. A small mud road linking the fishing communities along the coast has become a key thoroughfare used by everyone. The courts and officials are telling us that we cannot claim these spaces as our right without understanding the nature of our livelihoods. If the Secretariat is built here, our very existence would become difficult due to heightened security,” he said.
V.R. Vijayan, Maylai Pagudhi Anaithu Meenava Grama Panchayat Sabhai said over 1,500 families belonging to the fishing community would have nowhere to go if the complex was constructed there.
The lands identified for the Secretariat belonged to community leader Sindhanai Sirpi Singaravelar, who had gifted it to the communities. “We have been demanding that the land be returned to us,” he said.
On Tuesday, representatives of 140 villages from Tiruvallur to Chengalpattu will meet and pass a resolution against the government’s decision, and also plan the next course of action.