In a significant development, Amreli District Collector P R Sompura has forwarded a report to the Centre on the hardships faced by nearly 12,000 inhabitants of Shial Bet island due to the dredging work at the privately-owned Rs 190 crore Pipavav Port project in neighbouring Rajula taluka. The local gram panchayat had appealed to the collector to rid them of the miseries owing to continuous dredging for the project.

“We have found that the dredging work has affected the livelihood of the Shial Bet residents, most of whom are fishermen. But since this issue falls outside the purview of the district administration and the state government, we have forwarded our report to the concerned Ministry at the Centre for necessary action,” Sompura told Newsline.

Earlier, in reply to an RTI application filed by some villagers of Shial Bet, the collector had underlined that the concerns expressed by the residents were ‘true’. The district administration had also directed the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) at Jafarabad on July 29, 2009 to carry out a thorough investigation in this matter.

Following this, GMB Port Officer G T Manat had visited the island on August 24 and submitted his report to Sompura. “The GMB’s report, the representations by the Shial Bet’s gram panchayat and the district administration’s own observations from the report have been sent to the Centre,” he said.

Shial Bet sarpanch Nanji Baladhia said: “Our only mode of transportation to the mainland was the Pipavav Port company’s jetty number 1, which is now filled with mud extracted during dredging. This has virtually cut us off from the outside world, as the company officials are very reluctant to let us pass through other jetties. There have been cases where even pregnant village women were made to wait for hours to be let across.”

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