Four days fishing allowed in 31 Kanyakumari villages

M K Ananth | TNN | Updated: May 6, 2020, 15:42 IST

MADURAI: Following representations from fishermen and their associations, the fisheries department in Kanyakumari district has increased the number of fishing days in 31 coastal villages starting Thursday. Till Wednesday, the villages were given turns to go for fishing twice a week from each of the villages. Now, they get four days.
These villages come under the officer of the deputy director of fisheries, Colachel.
In some villages, where there are more boats, fishermen could go to the sea only once and this hardly helped them sail through the weekly expenses.
“In some villages, we had to stop the fish landing and sale due to uncontrolled crowds that threw social distancing in the air and posed a threat of the spread Covid-19,” a fisheries official said. This affected fishermen further.
Fishermen associations in their representations said the crowd could be reduced if the number of fishing days during the ban period is increased more customers could get fish. Accordingly, the department issued an order on Wednesday saying they will be allowed to catch and sell fish on four days a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – abiding by social distancing norms.
This is applicable only for traditional country craft and fibre boat fishing boats. Fisheries department officials said that the catch will be seized, licence given to the boats and permit given to the villages cancelled if the fishermen or village committees failed to abide by the 13 conditions listed out to them along with the permit to catch fish for four days a week during the lockdown period.
However, the coastal villages have expressed concern over fishermen spending money on liquor instead of using it for their families. Tasmac outlets will reopen on Thursday. “Closure of Tasmac outlets helped us keep the village in control during the lockdown. We don’t know what will happen when the liquor shops reopen tomorrow,” a village committee representative said.