MNREGS jobs to help tide fishermen over till ban ends

4,000 mechanised boats to stay anchored for 61 days from today

The fisheries department has tied up with the District Water Management Agency (DWMA) to provide alternative employment to fishermen in a big way during the fishing ban coming into force from Saturday.

The officials of the department along with the DWMA have identified works for over 16,000 active seafaring fishermen as fishing operations using mechanised and motorised boats in the Bay of Bengal off the Prakasam coast come to a halt to protect fish and other marine species during the breeding season in the next 61 days.

Over 2,000 mechanised and 1,943 motorised boats in the 103-km sea coast in coastal mandals of Ongole, Kothapatnam, Chirala, Vetapalem, Chinnaganjam, Tangutur, Singarayakonda, Ulavapadu, and Gudluru, were being anchored by fishermen as the fisheries department is determined to enforce the ban till June 14 more effectively this year.

Awareness meet

After holding an awareness meet for fishermen in coastal habitations, fisheries joint director A.Balaram told The Hindu that fishermen who used to idle during the closed season hitherto could now look for wage employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme for alternative jobs.

“We have made all arrangements to ensure at least ₹6,000 per fisherman in the coastal mandals as wage employment under the MGNREGS so that the ban is not violated,” Mr Balaram said.

Over 2,200 country crafts in the district could, however, continue fishing as usual in the sea up to eight km, he added.

More aid sought

Meanwhile, a group of fishermen at Kothapatnam Pallepalem complained that though there were 80,000 fishermen, compensation was being provided only to 16,000 of them. Moreover, they were forced to wait for six to eight months for getting the ex gratia credited to their bank accounts due to delay in clearance of payment by the district administration, they lamented.

They wanted the compensation to be increased to at least ₹10,000. The compensation amount should be released before the ban commenced to help them pull on during the ban period, said former sarpanch Prabhu Prakash Naidu. A good number of nuclear families had been left out, he added.