Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (MS)

Udupi, Oct 30: Traditional country boats are not engaged in fishing activity for the past three months as kerosene is not available. Thousands of fishermen families have lost their livelihood in the three coastal districts of the state for the same reason.

According to the orders of the state government, kerosene should have been released to the country boat fishermen from the month of August. However, the traditional fishermen are unable to reap the high fish yield as they cannot go for fishing, according to Dinesh Padukere.

In the three districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada there are 1345, 4896 and 1789 traditional fishing boats respectively. On an average 300 liters of kerosene is required for each boat per month. This means 24090 Kilo litres of kerosene is required annually. There are 60500 country boat fishermen.

Fisheries director, in his letter to union ministry, said, “From 2013, as per the orders of government, 300 liters of kerosene is being given to traditional fishermen. During that time there were 4,514 country boats in the three districts. At present, there are 8,030 traditional boats. But the government has not increased the quantity of kerosene supply accordingly. Now, the same quantity of kerosene which was supplied to 4,514 boats is being distributed to all the 8030 boats, which means each of them get only about 150 liters per month. An order has been sent to union ministry to provide kerosene to all the 8,030 boats from April 2022-23.”

State traditional country boat fishermen federation is planning to stage a huge protest on November 7 in front of DC offices of the three districts demanding supply of additional quantity of kerosene among other demands. In Udupi, 20,000 fishermen will gather at 10 am and take out a procession from MGM College to the DC office and submit their appeal in support of their demands.