Marina blues: aesthetics versus livelihood – The Hindu

It most likely is probably the most uncomplicated among the many a number of visitors bottlenecks that plague Chennai.

The 18.3-metre vast, 2.55-km lengthy Loop Street alongside the Marina seaside in Chennai, presents nice close-up views of the Bay of Bengal in its many moods and hues. Close to the bend nearer to the Gentle Home, the fishermen’s households promote their every day catch to eke out a dwelling. For certain, they’ve their stalls on the highway, and persons are all the time milling in regards to the highway, however that comes from a sense that it has been their hamlet for hundreds of years.

Based on the Chennai Complete Transportation Research, the peak-hour journey pace on Santhome Excessive Street had decreased from 33 kmph in 1992 to twenty-eight kmph in 2008 and 19 kmph in 2018. However it’s principally those that come to purchase the fish that park haphazardly, inflicting the jams observed in that stretch of the highway, which nobody else bothered with until the Sixties.

On April 11, the Madras Excessive Court docket suo motu ordered the eviction of the fishermen from the carriageway. What ensued was stiff resistance, with the miffed fishermen blocking the highway with their catamarans. They prevented judges in addition to different motorists from utilizing the highway for every week.

Whereas the fishermen asserted their conventional proper to occupy Loop Street, located adjoining to the busy however slender Santhome Excessive Street, the Excessive Court docket insisted on establishing a authorized proper to encroach upon a public highway maintained by the Higher Chennai Company (GCC). The stalemate was suspended briefly after the GCC promised the Court docket that it might regulate the fishermen on Loop Street till the completion of a contemporary fish market.

The everlasting fish market is beneath development, however it’s a minimum of six months away from completion. It should have provisions for 384 distributors in addition to bathroom and sewage therapy vegetation. The market additionally goals to resolve visitors congestion attributable to consumers by offering parking services for round 215 autos.

On the nub of the difficulty although, is a query of land and livelihood rights.

Cussed streak

Kalki and Mohana, two ladies who promote fish and have been a part of the current agitation, stated many conventional fish markets within the metropolis had been misplaced on account of urbanisation. “We can’t be moved to a standard market since it should trigger quite a lot of issues as the concept is to deliver all of the villages beneath one roof. Such built-up markets are solely good for industrial use, not for individuals like us who promote contemporary fish instantly from the boats,” Ms. Mohana says.

Okay. Bharathi, a group chief of Nochikuppam, says the area occupied by the highway is a part of the village commons. “Our work is at sea and at shore. We don’t have any mounted timings and fish in the course of the day and evening. We park our boats on the sands and empty the nets on the highway because it can’t be achieved on the sands. Residents within the village go to fish bang reverse their properties and promote them in entrance of their properties, which is frequent observe in every of the 500-odd fishing villages within the State. The highway is a part of our lives and our livelihood depends upon it,” he says.

Ko. Su. Mani, one other group chief, expenses that it was solely as a result of the GCC was unable to widen Santhome Excessive Street, the place the federal government workplaces and different companies are positioned, that they’re very eager on troubling the fishermen. “Again and again they make plans to widen that highway however give it up citing varied causes. They then lay their eyes on our land, and since no fishing village has pattas, we’re straightforward targets.”

“Fishermen cooperative societies, by means of which we’ve got been promoting fish, have been in existence for the reason that Twenties, however the division has no data of it. They haven’t even bothered to characterize us in court docket. Fishermen have pooled private funds to have interaction a lawyer,” says Kabaddi Maran, one other group chief. The Fisheries Division, which was renamed to incorporate fishermen welfare, has not even bothered to carry session conferences with them to discover a answer to this long-drawn concern, he provides.

Historical past of judgments

This isn’t the primary time that the Madras Excessive Court docket had intervened within the concern by itself movement lately. In December 2018, Justice Vineet Kothari took up cudgels after discovering that the maintenance of the Marina was less than the requirements anticipated of a world-class seaside. “We won’t allow this seaside to go to the canines. It’s a very stunning seaside and has to stay stunning,” the decide instructed the then GCC Commissioner D. Karthikeyan and started issuing a slew of instructions geared toward regulating the hawkers on the three.48-km beachline in addition to the fish distributors on Loop Street.

It was solely after the court docket’s nudging that the GCC got here up with a plan to register hawkers, concern identification playing cards and supply fashionable pushcarts. The civic physique additionally agreed to assemble a contemporary market to relocate the fish distributors from Loop Street.

Then, a Division Bench led by Justice Kothari had explored the opportunity of establishing a walk-over bridge in order that fishermen may use the bridge to move their catch with out disturbing the free motion of autos. Nonetheless, the GCC reported that it might require clearance from the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Administration Authority (TNCZMA) for such a undertaking.

The civic physique additionally instructed the court docket that it was dropping its beautification plan for Loop Street as a result of your complete stretch had Olive Ridley turtle nesting websites. The TNCZMA granted permission for re-laying Loop Street in 2014 on the situation that the present avenue lights be switched off between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. throughout December-February yearly, the nesting interval of the turtles.

The Excessive Court docket additionally requested the GCC to think about the feasibility of reconstructing a vehicular bridge that when related Loop Street from Pattinappakam to Besant Nagar however had collapsed throughout heavy rain within the Nineteen Seventies. It got here up with a ₹411-crore undertaking, topic to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances.

Earlier than the undertaking may take off, Justice Kothari acquired transferred to the Gujarat Excessive Court docket in January 2021 and alongside along with his switch all efforts taken by the court docket acquired grounded.

In July 2021, Justice N. Kirubakaran (since retired) took up the difficulty by increasing the scope of a batch of writ petitions looking for licence to promote ice cream on the seaside. Then, he needed to know the opportunity of constituting a committee headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. Nonetheless, his effort too was short-lived as he retired from service in August 2021.

Minimize to the current. Because the Company in addition to the police remained mute spectators to the heavy visitors congestion on the carriageway, the Madras Excessive Court docket judges, who use the Loop Street frequently to commute between the Excessive Court docket and their residences, started cracking the whip by taking over a suo motu writ petition.

‘Unethical to take a stand’

The CRZ notification of 2011 protects the livelihood of fisherfolk, and Loop Street can’t be privatised for the advantage of these with autos, activists say. “How can a decide have a suo motu perspective concerning this concern? It simply signifies a mind-set that comes from a way of privilege,” says Nityanand Jayaraman, a social rights activist.

Police personnel speaking with the protesting fishermen and residents of close by localities on Loop Street in Chennai.
| Picture Credit score:
B. Jothi Ramalingam

Based on him, the GCC and the Excessive Court docket have twisted across the Coastal Zone Rules. “The fisherfolk have a cause to be on the seashore, and this frequent property is their territory. There must be performance in magnificence and to make sure this, the fisherfolk have to be consulted,” he says. Sundar Rajan from Poovulagin Nanbargal, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that works on socio-environmental points, says Chennai isn’t nearly stunning issues reminiscent of filter espresso and sambhar but in addition the “salty sea spray and odor of fish”. “It’s extremely unethical for judges who discover it tough to navigate their automobiles whereas passing by means of Loop Street to take a stand on this concern,” he says.

GCC Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi says the civic physique’s stand is to each regulate visitors and shield the livelihoods of the fisherfolk. “We are attempting to reach at a stability by contemplating the opinions of all stakeholders and taking the fisherfolk into confidence,” he provides.

Beautification drives

Through the years, Marina seaside has been subjected to quite a few beautification efforts. A number of administrations of the GCC have appeared in direction of the seaside, the delight and pleasure of Chennaiites, to make it cleaner and extra stunning.

The civic physique has now centered on seaside cleansing, with staff combing the sands for plastic and waste. Even the meals distributors on the fringe of the seaside have shifted to utilizing glass or leaf plates in line with the State’s ban on single-use plastics. The promenade is well-maintained and cleaned frequently, the lawns bordering it have a lush inexperienced hue and shrubs are pruned frequently.

There had been proposals prior to now to have a flyover from Manali to Adyar after which construct sea-front high-rise buildings at Pattinapakkam in public-private-partnership mode. Each confronted opposition and by no means went past the proposal stage. Even now, the DMK authorities is eager on constructing a memorial formed like a pen for former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, on the different finish of the Marina.

(With inputs from Malavika Ramakrishnan and Aloysius Xavier Lopez)