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Published: September 7, 2010 00:00 IST | Updated: September 7, 2010 04:30 IST“Make fishermen welfare board operational”
Hold fishermen meetings every week to redress grievances
: Representing the needs of the country boat fishermen here, members of the Coastal People's Federation pressed a charter of demands on Monday.
Spearheading the agitation in front of the Collectorate, M. Pushparayan, convener of the federation, demanded the intervention of the district administration in convening fishermen meetings to redress their grievances every week.
A population of over two lakh fisher folk is residing in Tuticorin. The fishermen's welfare board should be made operational under the Labour Department.
To identify the needs of the fishermen, authorities should take adequate measures to conduct mass contact programmes. The subsidy of diesel, the key resource for fishing boats, should be hiked from the existing scenario.
They also demanded kerosene subsidy for fishing by country boats. Besides, compensation for the cyclone-hit boats was sought.
Mr. Pushparayan said the government had assured release of compensation to the affected but there was no move as of yet. Since the government had enforced fishing ban under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 in the Marine Park area of the Gulf of Mannar, the livelihoods of the fisher folk were in dire strait. Hence, the government should lift the ban. He urged authorities to reconsider the government's proposed setting up of an industrial complex for manufacturing fishing related equipment at “Pidaneri” a place near Nazareth in Tuticorin.
The demands were represented to the District Revenue Officer D. Ravichandran in the form of a petition.
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