"What Would We Do For Food?" Fishermen On New Secretariat Project In Chennai
Fishermen in Chennai are protesting a proposed 26-acre government Secretariat-cum-Assembly complex, fearing it will displace their community and destroy their livelihoods. They are calling for the land to be repurposed for housing for local fishing families instead.
Why it matters
The conflict highlights the tension between large-scale urban development projects and the rights of traditional, marginalized communities to access their ancestral ecosystems.
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.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."How would we educate our grandchildren? What would we do for our food?"
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