Thiruvananthapuram: The opposition UDF on Wednesday protested in the Kerala Assembly demanding a clear reply from Health Minister Veena George over the recent incidents of alleged harassment of fish vendors on waysides in the name of COVID restrictions.

The Congress-led opposition members raised the issue during the question hour, a day after the staff of the LDF-ruled Attingal Municipality here threw away a portion of the fish, kept for sale by a local fisher woman, on the road and carried away the rest in their garbage truck.

Though the Municipality authorities had said there were complaints from locals against wayside fish sale in the area, the visuals of the alleged excesses of the staff and the crying of the woman rolling on the road went viral on the social media platforms putting them on the back-foot. Recently, another fisher woman in Anchuthengu, a coastal panchayat here, had complained of harassment by police who allegedly threw away her basket full of fish into a garbage heap citing the violation of pandemic protocol.

Rejecting the UDF charges, George said the government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, was making effective interventions to protect the life and livelihood means of people in the state. As she did not elaborate much on the particular incidents, the opposition members rose from their seats and demanded a clear and straight reply from the minister.

Terming the Attingal incident on Tuesday as "unfortunate", opposition leader V D Satheesan said it has brought disgrace to the entire state. As the minister had recently made a statement in the House regarding the COVID restrictions, she has the responsibility to answer the question related to that, he said.

Mathew Kuzhalnadan of the Congress said at least two or three fisher women had complained of harassment in the last one week over the restrictions. The controversy erupted on Tuesday after the municipality staff threw away the fish, kept in a basket for sale by fish vendor Alphonsa, in a place under the Attingal Municipality limit. The visuals, aired by television channels, showed the woman pleading with the Municipality personnel in their khaki uniform not to throw away the fish as selling fish was the only source of living for her to support a five-member family.

In the visuals, she could also be seen trying to stop the men from throwing away the fish and finally falling down on the road. The woman, who lodged a complaint with the police against the Municipality staff, said thousands of rupees of fish was destroyed by them.