Karwar: Fishermen continued their protest against the expansion of the Karwar port under the Sagarmala project here on Tuesday. They expressed ire against the construction of sea wall which has begun even amid stiff opposition.

The seawall is being constructed as part of the port expansion work and this made the fishermen raise their voice. Even on Monday, the fishermen and local people had staged protests for the entire day and traders had kept their shops closed.

On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the spot where the work is going on and raised slogans like ‘Idli Saambaar Acha Hai, BJP Sarkar Luccha Hai’ against the State government.

They even alleged that the elected representatives of their area were not responding to their demands.

They put garlands of footwear to the posters of MP Ananthkumar Hegde and MLA Roopali Naik to show their anger against them. They smeared the posters with dung and hit the posters with chappals. They even displayed posters with edited pictures of Anant Hegde wearing saree and Roopali Naik wearing men’s clothes to ridicule them for their stand.

“The police are assaulting the protesters who want to draw the attention of the government. They are arresting people who are fighting for justice. We will not allow this project at any cost. We are even ready to sacrifice our lives to save our beaches. We will also teach a befitting lesson to our elected representatives who do not care for us,” the protesters said. 

They said that hundreds of families were dependent on fishing in Karwar. But their livelihood was being snatched away for profits of big men. This had instigated the fishermen/women to fight for their existence.

They later staged a dharna before the deputy commissioner’s office.

The protest which began at around 12 noon went on till evening. The protesters then declared that they would observe Karwar Bandh on January 16.

Police kept on monitoring the situation throughout the protest.

For the second consecutive day on Tuesday, the Karwar fish market was kept closed. This left fish eaters disappointed.