Mumbai: The fishermen of Mumbai are up in arms against the BMC for serving them notice to shift the Chhatrapati Shivaji Fish market located near Crawford market to Airoli in Navi Mumbai. The BMC administration has given the deadline of July 31 but the fishermen’s association has threatened to go on strike.
Mumbai mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar has come out in support of the city’s fishing community and announced that the fish market will not be shifted to Airoli and that the Shiv Sena stands firmly behind the fishermen.
However, the fishermen’s association is dissatisfied and is likely to go on strike on August 1 if the fishermen’s demands are not met. The strike will affect all 102 fish markets in the city.
President of the Akhil Maharashtra Macchi-mar Kruti Samiti (AMMKS), Damodar Tandel, said, “We want the mayor’s verbal promise in writing. The decision making is with the municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi. If the Sena’s promise is only considering the upcoming elections, we won’t accept it. The BMC has submitted an affidavit in the high court in 2017 that the fish market will not be shifted. The structural audit says our one-storeyed market is reparable. The BMC has changed the fish market’s reservation in the Devel-opment Plan 2034”.
“We have written to CM Devendra Fadnavis that the fish market’s reservation should be retained. The power to change the reservation lies only with the CM under section 33. If our demands are not met, we will go on strike on August 1 and no fish will be supplied in Mumbai,” said Mr Tandel.
