Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 1: Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary, said that a proposal to reserve 20 percent of jobs in Coastal Security Police Force to skilled fishermen is under consideration. He said that this proposal is currently gaining attention of the government and that the issue would be placed before the chief minister before acting on it.

He was speaking after inaugurating a programme of interaction on coastal fisheries held Netravati auditorium of the zilla panchayat here on Tuesday June 30.

A few who took part in the programme pointed out that agriculturists are getting several facilities through Kissan cards. They said that being a part of agriculture, fisheries sector also should get this benefit. "Fishermen are not getting as much facilities as that of farmers. Kissan cards should be issued to even the fishermen," they argued.

The minister said that a decision on this proposal will be taken after taking up the issue with the lead bank manager, director of fisheries department, officials concerned and the chief minister.

MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who inaugurated the programme, said that opinions of experts would be put together through these programmes and by pooling and streamlining them, a good plan would be drawn up for achieving financial and social progress of the fishing sector.

Joint director in fisheries department, Brahmachari, said that there are 3.28 fishermen in coastal Karnataka and 1.57 lac among them are active. He also provided the information that the sector has been provided with eight fishing ports, 26 fishing jetties, 18 fisheries cooperative societies, one fisheries development corporation and two fisheries marketing federations. "There are 4,585 mechanised fishing boats, 9,362 motorised boats, and 9,097 country boats in the coast," he explained.

Zilla panchayat president Meenakshi Shantigodu, Karwar MLA Roopali Naik, Kaup MLA Lalaji R Mendon, Mangaluru south MLA Vedavyas Kamath and fisheries director Ramakrishna, were on the dais.

Kota Srinivas Poojary said that a decision to make QR Code-based Adhar cards mandatory for the fishermen has been taken and that the department will soon issue circular on this issue. He said that possessing or QR Code biometric cards is compulsory for putting together information about the safety of fishermen and other information about them. He said that the matter of providing these cards through Seva Sindhu websites or the respective fisheries departments is under consideration.

Superintendent of police of Coastal Security Force, Chetan, said that colour coding system has been brought into force for the boats. He said that if there are problems in this matter, the fishermen together can submit a memorandum, based on which further steps would be taken.