India, Nov. 14 -- After four months of confrontation with the fishing community, the Mumbai Port Authority (MbPA) on Thursday moved into Sassoon Dock with the police and took possession of 18 warehouses. Evicting hundreds of workers who process the daily catch at these warehouses, the officials shut and sealed the premises.

The action is rooted in a dispute over rental arrears being claimed by the MbPA, which owns 60-odd warehouses at the dock. While the port authority has leased the godowns to the state-owned Maharashtra State Fisheries Development Corporation (MFDC), the latter has sub-let them to the fishing community, which uses them as vital seafood processing units after the catch is hauled in.

Angry and betrayed, and taken by sur...