Following a meeting convened by the MLA of Mylapore Assembly constituency, fishers of Nochikuppam in Chennai, who are protesting the eviction of fish stalls on Marina loop road, have agreed to a proposal which would temporarily allow them to sell fish on a designated area. The talks were held on the evening of Thursday, April 13. The officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and police had begun forcibly removing the stalls on April 12, following a directive by the High Court.
The High Court is scheduled to hear the case again on April 18. During the talks with representatives of the fisher community, Dha Velu, MLA of the Mylapore constituency, promised them that the issue will be discussed with the Chief Minister MK Stalin. The MLA held a meeting with the representatives of the Nochikuppam fisher community to discuss possible solutions for the issue.
Dha Velu said in the meeting that the CM has asked the community to file an appeal for the next hearing and suggested demarcating a five feet wide area on the loop road, on a temporary basis, for selling fish. “So far, we are okay with the terms," said Ravi, Mylapore Zone Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The protest wound up at 1:30 pm on April 13. “We have stopped our demonstration for now. It is Tamil New Year and only a few have gone to the sea. We have sold everything that was fished today,” Ravi said.
Police have imposed a set of rules on a trial basis for two days to gauge traffic on the road. Parking of four-wheelers of customers has been restricted to the two ends of the loop road - Light House and Nochi Nagar. Two-wheelers have been advised to be parked in the nooks between the community housing buildings on the east side of the road.
"Police have agreed to set the area for four-wheeler parking and provide assistance to control traffic," said K Bharathi, former vice President of Mylapore-Nochikuppam Fishing Gram Sabha.
“The police have been asked to take footage of traffic here for two days and submit it to the Madras High Court for review. We hope the parking restrictions they have suggested will smoothen the traffic,” he added.
The acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, T Raja, sent a letter to the registry on April 6 taking suo motu cognizance of congestion caused on the road due to the stalls. The case was then allotted to a special bench headed by Justice SS Sundar and PB Balaji.