RAJKOT, MAY 12: May 8 has come and gone, the God's still smiling and all's well with the world. Once again, the prophets of doom have been proved wrong. But, now there's new grist for the rumour mills. Alang and the coastal areas are abuzz with rumours that a cyclone may hit the Saurashtra coast by June 15 this year.What has apparently fanned the hysteria is newspaper reports that a killer cyclone will hit the coast in June.Thousands of labourers have already fled the shipbreaking yards and even those who stayed behind are now packing their bags. As for those who had left the yards fearing the world would come to an end on May 8 are calling up the shipbreakers from their native villages to inform that they will not return till June 15.The shipbreakers, who till now were keeping their fingers crossed, have to wait for at least another month before the workers' fears are allayed and they return to work."Right now business has been reduced to guarding the property from miscreants and thieves," saysSubodh Chaudhary, secretary of the shipbreakers association.While cutting work has come to a grinding halt, loading of small scrap is on at the shipbreaking yards as many shipbreakers have recruited women from neighbouring villages to do the odd jobs. "We are making the best of non-availability of labour. We are offering the women reasonable wages for the work they are doing here and for the time being their services are being utilised to load light scrap," a shipbreaker said.
