Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (RJP)

Bengaluru, Apr 9: Till the current fishing season ends, the fishermen in the coastal region will get diesel at subsidized rates as before, the chief minister has informed. Hence, the proposed bank credit has been put on hold.

The government had decided to credit the bank accounts of fishermen with the subsidy amount instead of selling the diesel at subsidized price. In this arrangement, the fishermen would buy the diesel at marker rate and the subsidy amount on the diesel would be credited to the bank account later. This arrangement was to take effect from April 1 this year.

But the fishermen associations protested over this decision. Various representatives of these organizations with the leadership of former minister Oscar Fernandes, Ministers Ramanath Rai and Abhayachandra Jain met the chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday at his residence ‘Krishna’. They demanded that the proposed system of transferring subsidy to the bank account should not be implemented and the old system of direct should be followed.

The chief minister who listened to the delegation said that till the fishing season is over, the same arrangement like before will prevail and whatever policy change needed, will be looked into only after the next fishing season begins.

Even the demand of increasing the maximum diesel per day per boat, from the existing 300 litres to 400 litres, was discussed. The chief minister said that this will also be looked into in the next season.

The delegation also included Ivan D’Souza, Moiden Bawa and Pramod Madhwaraj.