Over 5,000 fishermen, led by a 100-strong group of local Trinamul leaders in Contai’s Deshpran block, on Thursday held a meeting and rally violating social distancing norms to demand a conducive environment for fishing.

The rally at the Petuaghat Fishing Harbour was organised by fishermen to protest the “forcible postponement” of fishing from June 15 to 30.

“We are dying from lack of food so we care little about social distancing. We are here to protest that local rowdies are not allowing us to resume our livelihood,” said fisherman Sanatan Das, 45, of Sunia village.

Seated on the podium, among others, were Deshpran panchayat samiti deputy chief Tarun Jena, 20 elected members of the samiti, zila parishad member Sandip Bera, five panchayat pradhans of the area, as well as panchayat samiti chief Moumita Das. All are Trinamul leaders.

The podium had life-sized posters of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and transport minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Sources said that on June 15, some residents thwarted 300-odd fishermen from sailing trawlers from the Petuaghat harbour. Most protesters blamed “Opposition forces” for their loss of livelihood.

Government officials stayed mute spectators to the violation of government rule that bans mass gatherings amid the pandemic. CPM district secretary Niranjan Sihi slammed the administration for looking the other way when Trinamul leaders violated the mass gathering ban.