{"id":49063,"date":"2016-10-18T21:15:19","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T01:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49063"},"modified":"2016-10-18T21:18:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T01:18:36","slug":"catholic-church-inspires-fisherfolk-to-launch-protest-campaign-against-dredging-of-sand-in-negombo-dikowita-seas-for-colombo-port-city-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49063","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Church Inspired Fisherfolk Launch Protest Campaign Against Dredging of Sand in Negombo-Dikowita Seas for Colombo Port City Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Shamindra Ferdinando<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catholic clergy assisted the Negombo police Monday evening (Oct 17) in ending a protest at Kurana level crossing near the Negombo Town Hall on the Colombo-Chilaw road.<\/p>\n

Protesters, mostly fishermen, blocked the road for several hours against the government decision to allow dredging of sand in the Negombo-Dikowita deep seas to reclaim land from the sea to build the proposed Port City. Thousands of students, office workers as well as foreigners were affected by the protest.<\/p>\n

Fishermen\u2019s organisations launched the protest campaign close on the heels of Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith urging President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe not to permit dredging of sand.<\/p>\n

The Cardinal warned of an ecological disaster and destruction of livelihoods of fishermen if the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration implemented the controversial project undertaken by the previous government.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Father Edmund Thillekeratne issued the statement on Oct 12 on behalf of the Archbishop of Colombo.<\/p>\n

Fishermen and their families vowed to continue protests until the government gave them an assurance.<\/p>\n

SSP Negombo Priyalal Dassanayake told The Island that two Catholic priests on their way back to Anuradhapura from Colombo convinced the protesters to leave the main road. “They had been on a vehicle held up by protesters,” SSP Dassanayake said, appreciating the intervention made by the clergy.<\/p>\n

Responding to a query, SSP Dassanayake emphasised that the police were determined to end chaos on the road without resorting to force.<\/p>\n

Protesters blocked the main road for over five hours.<\/p>\n

Protesters led by Catholic priests blocked the railway crossing close to the Negombo SSP\u2019s office in the afternoon. They ignored an attempt made by the Negombo police to serve a notice issued by the Negombo Magistrate court prohibiting disruption of traffic on the road.<\/p>\n

Efforts made by the police to use other roads to ensure movement of traffic towards Colombo and Chilaw hadn\u2019t been largely successful due to narrowness of the roads.<\/p>\n

Protesters demanded that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe or Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera visit them to discuss their grievances.<\/p>\n

SSP Dassanayake said the police cleared the way for two trains which had been blocked by the protesters to pass the trouble spot. Later, a section of the protesters gathered at the Negombo Municipal grounds. Having stayed there overnight, they remained, displaying placards.<\/p>\n

At the on set of the protest, the Negombo police summoned the Colombo-based anti-riot squads after having apprised the DIG and Senior DIG responsible for the area as well as the IGP of the situation.<\/p>\n

The police also positioned a special heavy vehicle mounted with water cannon to disperse protesters, but it was not made use of.<\/p>\n

SSP Dassanayake stressed that every effort was made to clear the road without deploying anti-riot squads. The top policeman said that protesters blocked the road in spite of them being given an opportunity to protest on one side of the main road.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the Catholic church had organized Monday\u2019s protest, Rev. Father Thillekeratne told The Island that fishermen and people\u2019s organizations based along the Negombo-Dickowita coastal belt had made representations to the church as regards the massive dredging project. The priest said that those who had been affected by the project launched the protest with the participation of priests there.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the National Police Commission (NPC) could have intervened to ensure law enforcement authorities acted swiftly and decisively to re-open the road, Secretary to the NPC Ariyadasa Cooray told The Island that he would bring the situation to the notice of the NPC headed by Prof. Siri Hettige.<\/p>\n

Both State Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle and MP Dr. Kavinda Jayawardena told The Island that those priests spearheading the protest declined their offer to meet them. MP Jayawardena said that he realized the fishermen\u2019s concerns over the project though the closure of the road for several hours was unfair.<\/p>\n

Megapolis Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka on Monday evening said that the Port City Project was on track. Responding to criticism of the project, Minister Ranawaka said that the government was ready to address concerns expressed by various persons through scientific means. The Government Information Department called for special briefing by Minister Ranawaka in the wake of the latest protest.<\/p>\n

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration promised to do away with the project in the run up to presidential polls in January 2015. However, following the parliamentary polls, in August 2015, the new administration finalized fresh agreement with China to resume the project.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Island<\/em><\/p>\n

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by Shamindra Ferdinando Catholic clergy assisted the Negombo police Monday evening (Oct 17) in ending a protest at Kurana level crossing near the Negombo Town Hall on the Colombo-Chilaw road. Protesters, mostly fishermen, blocked the road for several hours against the government decision to allow dredging of sand in the Negombo-Dikowita deep seas to reclaim …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Catholic Church Inspired Fisherfolk Launch Protest Campaign Against Dredging of Sand in Negombo-Dikowita Seas for Colombo Port City Project’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49065,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49063\/revisions\/49065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}