BJP govt has made fishermen suffer: Ivan

Mangaluru: KPCC vice-president and former MLC Ivan D’Souza said that the BJP government has made the life of fishermen miserable, by not implementing schemes for their welfare.
“The BJP government has announced several schemes to support fishermen, but none of them have been implemented. We will stage a stir, if the government fails to implement schemes to help fishermen,” D’Souza told reporters here on Tuesday.
He pointed out that fishermen were not given 300 litres of kerosene under subsidy, for the past four months. “Fishermen have been demanding that the diesel being distributed under a scheme on subsidy, for trawlers, should be increased from 300 litres to 500 litres per month, but it has not been fulfilled. The work on the third phase of the fishing jetty has not been taken up, even though funds were reserved by the previous Congress government,” he said, and accused the BJP of making only empty promises.
He alleged that the government has shown bias even in the selection of beneficiaries for housing schemes for fishermen. “The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada was neglected, even when 150 fishermen were sanctioned houses in Belagavi district. Lack of dredging on river mouths may lead to boat mishaps. The fisheries department has no dredger machine of its own. Dakshina Kannada is the home district of minister of fisheries, ports and inland water transport S Angara. However, he has not held a meeting of the fishermen community to discuss their problems. Action committees of the fishermen community have been striving for the fulfilment of their demands,” D’Souza said.
“I have held discussion with opposition leader in assembly Siddaramaiah, and requested him to raise the issues pertaining to fishermen in the legislature session,” he added.