Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Dec 30: President of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Cooperative Fish Marketing Federation, Yashpal Suvarna, has accused the state government of doing nothing in the matter of the mysterious case of the fishing boat, 'Suvarna Tribhuja' going missing all of a sudden. He pointed out that the government has failed to initiative any emergency and imperative steps to find out the whereabouts of the missing boat.
He said that Coastal Security Force is unable to undertake emergency operations in such cases as it does not have expert staff who know swimming for taking emergency measures. He said that because of this, the operation to find out the said boat has been getting unduly delayed. "Boats leaving for deep sea fishing normally have 15 days of food items. But it has been 15 days as on today after this boat disappeared. Therefore, the state government should immediately intervene and initiate steps to find out the said boat. The fishing minister should visit the houses of missing fishermen and instil a sense of confidence among them," he urged.
Yashpal Suvarna
Fishermen from the missing boat
Police personnel of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra have been continuing with their efforts to trace the boat from different angles but so far they have not succeeded in getting any clinching information. The families of the missing fishermen are in deep grief. Deputy superintendent of police, Jaishankar, said that two teams headed by police inspectors, Sampat Kumar and Kiran, have been dispatched to Goa and Maharashra, and these teams, with the support of the Coast Guard, have been continuing with the operation.
Because of this missing boat, 70 percent of the boats which came back from the deep sea, did not venture out again for fishing activity. They have been anchored at the Bunder here. MLA Raghupati Bhat, said that he has drawn the attention of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, about the possibility of this act having been the handiwork of terrorists. Speaking to media persons, he said he had sent emails and twitter messages, asking the government to investigate this incident from this angle also.