The 47-day trawl ban has come and gone, but fish workers here complain that the promised government aid to tide over the days of unemployment is yet to come. Meanwhile, the Fisheries Department has come under fire for its alleged negligence in ensuring that the benefits reached the community in time.
Thanal scheme
Fishers from Puthiyappa allege they are yet to receive financial aid from the government’s Thanal scheme. “We had remitted monthly instalments, as instructed, in time, but they failed to meet our requirements at a crucial moment,” they said.
“The declared share of ration was not allocated to any eligible family. Similar was the case with crediting the Thanal scheme aid to the fish workers’ bank accounts,” said K.K. Rajesh, a fisherman from Elathur. He added that fishers did not resort to any protest during the ban period, as they were all busy finding other jobs.
Dilshan, a young fisherman from Puthiyappa, said several poor families living along the coastline of Kozhikode had to meet their daily expenses with borrowed money. “Now, many of us are resuming work after investing a huge sum for the overhauling of fishing boats and purchase of fuel,” he added.
When contacted, Fisheries Department officials said they had submitted the list of all eligible beneficiaries to the District Supply Office in time for free ration allocation. “It was primarily the responsibility of the Civil Supplies Department to handle the distribution part and, obviously, there were some technical issues,” they claimed.
A Fisheries Department official in Kozhikode said there was no truth in the claim that fishers did not get aid from the government welfare scheme during the ban period. It might be true in the case of a few owing to technical issues with banks, but most of them had got around ₹3,000 each, the official said.