‘No houses’: Loop Road fishers show black flags to candidate

Chennai: A group of more than 100 fishermen in Srinivasapuram on Marina showed black flags to DMK MLA Mylai D Velu, who is seeking re-election from Mylapore constituency.Velu, however, said the protest was orchestrated by the AIADMK and the BJP, who had "sent their partymen to masquerade as fishermen". Real fishermen would not be misled by such groups, Velu told TOI. The Loop Road along the Marina has about nine blocks, housing about 20,000 fisherfolk.On Wednesday, when Velu visited the area, the residents said he had failed to honour his promise of building 1,100 houses for the fishermen at the same location. They did not allow him to enter a temple there either.K Bharathi, president of South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association, said they have been living on a 29-acre land there for decades. "The previous AIADMK govt built houses for 400 of the 1,100 families. The incumbent MLA promised to build houses for the remaining families, but we didn't get anything," he said.Bharathi said the DMK govt removed all the vendors from Light House to the fish market, and moved away all their boats, turning the beach into a tourism hotspot. "The govt promised not to disturb the fishermen ecosystem in Loop Road when AIADMK was trying to remove us. In the last five years, several fishermen were arrested. I myself spent 22 days in Puzhal for protesting against the removal of our stalls," he said.Later, speaking to reporters, BJP's Mylapore candidate Tamilisai Soundarajan said, "In 2021, the MLA gave promises for housing, but the people were deceived."