Fish traders at Dewata Beach in Galle have reacted angrily after the Coastal Conservation Department removed their stalls on Thursday morning, Daily Mirror reported.
The traders say they had already been moved once before, from earlier trading positions, and that Municipal Council officials directed them to set up at the Dewata Beach site. They questioned why stalls operated with the knowledge of local authorities were then dismantled.
They further alleged that department officials arrived without warning and pulled the stalls down without giving them enough time to remove fish and other goods.
Department officials rejected that, saying the traders had been told in advance to remove the unauthorised structures from the beach. Police and Special Task Force personnel were deployed to provide security during the clearance.
One arm of the state against another
The traders’ central complaint is not that the law was applied but that two public authorities gave them opposite instructions — a municipal council directing them onto the site, a national department clearing them off it. Daily Mirror does not report any response from the Galle Municipal Council, and the two accounts of whether notice was given are not reconciled.
Part of a nationwide clearance
The removal is the latest stage of a coastal enforcement drive that has been running for weeks. In August, at least 22 structures including beachside cafés were demolished at Ahangama, also in Galle district, where the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management said it had identified more than 2,500 illegal constructions along the island’s coastline. Building is prohibited within a strip extending 10 to 25 metres from the shoreline.
In Colombo, the Environment Minister said on Thursday that 87 unauthorised structures have been identified on Marine Drive between Bambalapitiya and the Wasala Canal, for removal within the month. A day earlier the Court of Appeal restrained the department from demolishing a Wellawatte beach restaurant until September 21 — the first judicial check on the drive.
The Ahangama demolitions drew criticism from tourism operators and the SJB, who argued that enforcement should be paired with a plan protecting livelihoods. The Dewata traders are making a narrower version of the same argument.
Not reported
Daily Mirror does not say how many stalls were removed, how many traders are affected, whether any compensation or alternative site is offered, or whether the traders hold permits from the Municipal Council. It does not name the officials on either side or say when notice was allegedly given. Ada Derana was unreachable behind a CloudFront block, and no other verified newsroom had filed on the clearance at the time of writing, so this account rests on a single source.
