For 50 days the people of coastal areas are agitating against the construction of the Vizhinjam seaport. They have erected tents in the area where the construction is going on to continue the protests. The Adani Group, which is behind the port construction has complained that the tents erected on the roads are hindering the construction activities.

The High Court had earlier ordered that the protesters must not block the construction activities at Vizhinjam. Even after the court’s order, the construction was blocked by the protesters. The Adani Group and the company that has undertaken the construction again filed a complaint in court. The High Court ordered the tents to be removed from the area. However, the protest committee has refused to abide by the court’s order.

The systematic way is to follow the High Court’s order even if it is against the interest of the protesters. If the order is not satisfactory, they have the right to question it legally. Until the decision of the upper court is pending, the lower court’s order must be obeyed. Not following the settlement of a court amounts to insulting the judiciary. How can we tolerate this public defiance against the judiciary and the rule of law?

The protesters are saying that the construction company misled the High Court to earn the order to remove the protest tents from the manufacturing site. That does not mean that the court’s order is not valid. An allegation cannot invalidate the court’s order.

It was the responsibility of the protest committee to notify the court about their grievances beyond any doubt when the petition was considered. Without doing that, the protest committee is saying that they would not follow the court’s order as the court was misled. This can be seen only as a violation of the law.

The State government has already formed a group of experts to study the protest committee’s allegation that the construction of Vizhinjam port will lead to the erosion of the coastal area.

Four of the expert committee formed by the government are experts in their fields. No members of the protest committee were made part of the expert group. This has raised criticism. But as this is a technical study, which should be handled by experts, there is not much ground in the criticism.

The protest committee has said that the erosion of coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram, including Vizhinjam, has eroded after the construction began. However, this allegation of the protesters was refuted by an expert committee earlier. Not only in Thiruvananthapuram, but there is erosion throughout the state’s coastal areas. Some experts believe this is because of the sea taking over the land due to climate change.

Scientific evidence is scarce to substantiate the argument that building a seaport will increase the erosion of the coastal areas.

The State government is in the process of alleviating the grievances of those living in the coastal areas. An expert group is constituted to study the biggest issue of the protesters which is coastal erosion. Let the study come out. It is only appropriate that the protest is stopped till then.