Of these, inhabitants of 62 villages in the Krushna Prasad and Brahmagiri areas of Puri district, comprising traditional fishermen, were totally opposed to prawn culture, the secretary of the mahasangha, Anadi Behera told a news conference here yesterday.

Behera said fishermen of these 62 villages, who had set up Purbanchal matsyajibi sangha, a unit of the mahasangha, had held a conference at Kaudikhani under Kanas block from July 12 to 14 last to discuss the claim of some other organisations that the people of the area were solely dependent on prawn culture.

Stating that the state government had given them assurance to introduce a bill in the current session of the assembly on Chilka, look into all their demands including demolition of prawn gheries and withdrawal of casesinstituted against fishermen in connection with the Sorana firing, Behera said nothing had been done so far.

While a few gherries in Ganjam and Khurda districts had been demolished, not a single earthen bund in Puri district had been removed till now despite direction to that effect by the apex court and the recommendations of the house committee of the assembly.

Disputing the claim that most of the people in Brahmagiri, Krushna Prasad and Kanas blocks wanted proliferation of prawn culture for sustenance, Behera said middlemen were being used for the lucrative prawn culture by the prawn mafia thereby creating a hostile atmosphere in and around Chilka.The government was not in a position to withstand pressure and resort to demolition, he said.

Behera said that those who organised a rally held in Bhubaneswar on July 9 last had raised an absurd question as to why the state government was eager to implement the apex court's order concerning ban on prawn farming when other states were silent on it.

Thisquestion was similar to the one raised by the prawn exporters in their petition to the government given on March 10, 1997 and exposed the nexus between the two.

Secretary of the purvanchal matsyajibi sangha, Sarat Dalei said that their fight was only against prawn mafia who were eating into their livelihood causing rift between the villagers living in harmony till now.