Chennai: Majority of the fishermen who were victims of oil spill due to the collision of two merchant ships - Dawn Kancheepuram and B W Maple - this January had not yet submitted their forms, but fisheries department on Thursday estimated the loss of their livelihood to be at Rs 203.22 crore.
The compliance report submitted by the fisheries department, before the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and is possessed by Deccan Chronicle says, “As per the evidence collected and report submitted by team of fisheries officials, the total livelihood loss sustained by fisherfolk is ' 203.22 crore due to oil spill.
Defying the previous order of NGT, the joint director of fisheries department had sent a directive to the assistant directors of Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiru-vallur to not include those fishermen who had already received the claims forms earlier. (Estimating the loss at Rs 5,000)
Of the 1.1 lakh victims from the three districts, only 20,000 forms were collected for the final compensation. “Most of the fishermen from the R K Nagar constituency and the neighbourhood areas were given Rs 5,000 as compensation, as a move to bribe the voters. The estimated loss is 10 times higher than it,”said sources.
Advocate K. Mageswaran, who is a counsel for Meenava Thanthai, arg-ued, “Our organisation estimated the compensation to be Rs 2 lakh for a boat owner and ' 50,000 for traders. But soon after the oil spill, the department had issued the compensation of Rs 5,000 for 90,000 fishermen.
Now, they are not willing to include them in the final report.” The bench comprising Justice P. Jyothimani and expert member PS Rao struck down the fisheries department estimated amount (of Rs 203.22 crore) and directed officials to accept forms from all victims. “Fix the quantum amount after verifying the forms. Collect the forms from all the 90,000 fishermen within 2 weeks. Complete the verification procedure and settle the compensation to victims within 6 weeks,” said the bench to the fisheries department.
One of the respondents, ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC), told the bench that they had inspected all 20 vulnerable localities affected by the oil spill. “Samples were collected and a report will be submitted within three weeks,” the counsel for MoEFCC said. However, despite the court's previous order, no expert is appointed to enquire the oil spill case, which is still under the purview of Minjur inspector. The next hearing is posted to September 12.
