The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will give out Rs 11 crore in compensation to 184 members of the fisherfolk community whose livelihood has been affected by the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP).
A major portion of the 10.98-km-long MCRP passes through the Lotus Jetty in Worli, where one of the traffic interchanges is being set up. The Lotus Jetty was used by the members of the artisanal fishing community for harbouring their boats.
Owing to the construction works of the project being taken up in the sea, the catch for the fishermen had also migrated to the deep-water, leading to the fishermen having to sail deep into the sea. For these factors, BMC appointed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2021 to identify the loss of livelihood caused to the community due to the project.
Civic officials said that a total of 1,343 members, who have been involved in fishing related activities from 2018 onwards, will get the compensation; and a provision of Rs 136 crore has been earmarked for them separately from the Rs 12,721-crore budget for the project.
The civic body had earlier sent a list of eligible candidates to the state government’s fisheries department, and an approval for the same had been given. “There are 184 qualifiers in the first list, who will be paid Rs 11 crore. The second approved list comprises 336 names, and we are scrutinising their details, following which, the compensation amount will be decided,” said a senior official, on the condition of anonymity.
TISS has categorised the compensation for loss of livelihood into four categories, and the amount will not be uniform for all. For example, fishermen who use multiple cylinder boats will get a different compensation as compared to fisherfolk who use diesel cylinder or single cylinder in their boats.
According to BMC, there are many such cases in the second list where the name of a candidate is spelt differently in the Aadhaar card and the PAN card. It also maintained that many names mentioned in government identity cards do not match with names in bank accounts as well. “The payment for the first 184 candidates will be disbursed from the end of this month, therefore, we need to be completely sure of the names and details in bank accounts before disbursing the funds, since it is crucial for the affected persons,” the official added.
Sanjay Baikar, spokesperson of Vanchit Macchimar Association, said that the fishermen are facing a crisis in anchoring their boats at present. “It is good that BMC is paying the compensation, however, TISS had recommended that an arrangement to allow us to harbour more than 100 boats at the jetty be set up by the authorities. They, however, are not abiding by this point, and today, we are facing a crisis while harbouring our boats at the jetty,” Baikar told The Indian Express on Tuesday.