Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 27: State fisheries minister, Pramod Madhwaraj, clarified that the state government has not totally banned the practice of conducting fishing in deep sea by using lights. He issued this clarification during the media interaction organized on Tuesday September 26 about the achievements of his department.

"There is no ban on fishing by using lights during night between November and  April. However, use of lights for fishing  is banned during the remaining months. At the same time, bull trawling fishing has been totally banned up to 12 nautical miles from the seashore," he explained.

Madhwaraj said that the state had taken up the matter of organizing a conference of ministers from coastal states to discuss the aspects of fishermen from Karnataka facing harassment at the hands of fishermen from other stats, fisheries development, environment conservation etc. "The minister for agriculture had initially given his nod for the meeting, but he did not extend support to this idea because of political considerations as Karnataka is ruled by Congress government. As such, we have not been able to do anything against atrocitieis faced by our fishermen in deep sea," he stated.

The minister informed that the government had regularized 163 mechanized boats which were built illegally without obtaining feasibility certificates from fisheries department, adding that feasibility certificates are now being issued in transparent manner, and that all applications received till November 21 last year have been disposed off. "We are aware that there is shortage of space for mooring mechanized boats at Malpe port. Third phase of works is in progress there. We have asked officials of the department to clear country boats that have been anchored inside the port. Once these boats are cleared completely, we hope that the issue of shortage of space would be addressed," he said.

The minster said that the chief minister had been requested to allot one crore rupees for each assembly constituency in the budget for development of fisheries roads in coastal areas but grants have not yet been distributed. He said that repair of some fisheries roads are continuing and review meeting in the presence of local MLA, K Gopal Poojary had been held about mini port works at Aluvegdde, Gangolli, Maravanthe and Koderi. He observed that the intensity of sea erosion has now been less in Udupi district.