Black flags on the beach: Chennai fishermen march against TVK plan to build Secretariat on their land

CHENNAI — The beach at Pattinapakkam turned black on Sunday, as fishermen from ten coastal villages marched with black flags against the Tamil Nadu government's proposal to build a new Assembly and Secretariat complex at Foreshore Estate on land the fishing community says belongs to it. The march, organised by the Mylapore Area All Fishermen Village Panchayat Council, gathered at the Mullikuppam–Srinivasapuram Loop Road junction. Residents also hoisted black flags along the beachfront as a visible mark of dissent. The council's central demand is the withdrawal of Government Order 564, which it says sanctions the proposed complex. The land in question — falling under survey numbers 4592 and 4593 — was acquired through GO Ms No. 3313, dated October 10, 1957, specifically for the rehabilitation and long-term housing of the local fishing community, the council said. Using it for a government administrative complex, they argued, would contradict the very purpose for which it was acquired and break assurances previously given to coastal residents. The council has also cited the state's own climate vulnerability assessments, saying the Mullikuppam area is expected to remain relatively safe from projected sea-level rise through 2050 and 2100 — undercutting any argument that fishermen must be moved off the coast. Sunday's demonstration was not an isolated event. Fishermen staged an agitation on September 29 with the same demand. With the government refusing to change its position, the village council decided to escalate with the black flag march and warns that the campaign will intensify if there is no change in the government's stance. The fishermen's demands go beyond the Secretariat order. They want the state to return lands belonging to Mullikuppam and Mullimanagar to the villages for future expansion, and to build new houses for families living along the Marina Loop Road — most of the houses there were built 40 to 50 years ago and are crumbling. These demands have been submitted to the Chief Minister's Special Cell. "We hope the government will take a positive decision on the issue. Since we are the stakeholders who matter the most, we request the government to appoint someone to listen to our grievances before taking such a major decision. We are holding protests only because nobody has discussed the issue with us," fishermen leaders G.R. Vijayan and K. Bharathi said. Fishermen from Nochikuppam, Bhavanikuppam, Domingkuppam, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Mullikuppam and Srinivasapuram, Mullimanagar, Nambikai Nagar, Selvarajpuram and Irudayapuram have planned a series of protests aimed at drawing the attention of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. The episode puts the TVK government's development priorities in an uncomfortable light: a grand new Secretariat complex for the administration, on land a 69-year-old government order reserved for some of the city's poorest workers. For a government that came to power promising to hear ordinary people, the fishermen's central complaint — that nobody consulted them — is the sharpest charge of all.