Daisy, who sells fish and prawns on the Loop Road along Chennai’s Marina, a few hundred metres from the proposed site for the new Secretariat-cum-Assembly complex in Pattinapakkam, is a worried woman.
Chief Minister Vijay-led TVK government has proposed a Rs 1,200-crore, state-of-the-art Secretariat-cum-Assembly complex spread over 26 acres, in Pattinapakkam.
In the 50s, the government had taken away our land and promised plots. They should honour it and designate this parcel of land for our housing. Nityanand Jayaraman, environmentalist, questions the need for a massive government complex so close to the sea at a time when climate change and rising sea levels are already putting pressure on coastal ecosystems. “How can they have a massive project like this so close to the sea amid sea level rise? Is there a Tamil Nadu government on a climate change denial mode?” he asks.
With the ruling TVK government proposing a Rs 1,200-crore, state-of-the-art Secretariat-cum-Assembly complex spread over 26 acres, she fears the security restrictions around the project could make it difficult for people like her to continue doing what their families have done for generations. Not far away, Srinivasan, who has been eking out a livelihood through fishing for over 40 years, fears the government’s move could cripple the livelihood of nearly 10,000 fishermen and others dependent on the fishing economy in around ten villages within a 1.5-km radius. Fisherfolk are demanding that the government order approving the 26-acre project be scrapped and that the land instead be used for housing for fishing communities.
And when asked what she would tell Chief Minister Vijay, Daisy says she is happy that he has become Chief Minister and hopes things go well for him. Bharathi, president of a fishermen’s association, told NDTV, “They have to quash the project government order.
