PM Modi assures ministry of fishing to function from May 23

MANGALURU: Come May 23, a new ministry of fishing will be set up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said on Saturday. At present, issues’ pertaining to fishermen is handled by department of fisheries under ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare and NDA government is committed to giving fishermen their due with this new ministry that will come into existence on May 23, the day results of the general elections are announced.

The government has already extended the facility of Kisan Credit Card given to farmers to the fishermen, Modi said at a massive public rally here. The government is already extending aid to fishermen to help them upgrade their trawlers to carry out deep sea fishing, he said. The government has given navigational, fishing aid to fishermen to carry out their operations in a safe manner and call for help in case of any distress, the PM said.

Through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, a new central sector scheme under ministry of food processing industries, the government is giving an impetus for agro-marine processing and development of agro-processing clusters with an allocation of Rs 6,000 crore for 2016-20 coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission cycle. Even this scheme will vastly aid the fishermen lead a better life with higher returns for their catch, he said.

The government is committed to implementing more welfare measures for all strata of society and this can be done only your help, Modi told the gathering. Reminding them of the results of assembly elections of May 2018 where BJP fell a few seats short of majority, Modi said people of the Karnataka are paying for this ‘small mistake’ even now and should not be repeated in these polls. “We need a majbooth and not a majboor sarkar,” he said.