The BJP corporators on Tuesday pointed out to the Standing Committee that Worli fisherman will have to wait for at least one year to get any compensation from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and demanded that the survey by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) should be completed within three months.
The civic body had tabled a proposal before the Standing Committee to approve consultation fees of Rs 1.5 crore to TISS for carrying out a comprehensive survey to examine the possible losses to the fishermen in Worli due to construction of Coastal Road project. TISS had proposed a nine-month timeline to complete the survey.
When the proposal came up for discussion at the meeting on Tuesday, BJP group leader Prabhakar Shinde told the committee that the Coastal Road project work had begun in 2018 and since then, no proposal was mooted to give compensation to the fishermen. "Why fishermen's loss was not considered in the Environment Impact Assessment study report?" he questioned.
Standing Committee chairman, Yashwant Jadhav said, "The big ships deployed by construction companies engaged in Coastal Road project are inadvertently destroying the nets of fishermen hitting the livelihoods of fishermen. Hence, we should resolve their problem as soon as possible."
The committee eventually approved proposal unanimously with TISS being given a nine months' time to complete the survey.
