Mangaluru: DK District in-charge minister speaking at an interactive program on Coastal Fisheries at the Netravati auditorium of the Zilla panchayat here on Tuesday, June 30 said the government was considering a proposal to reserve 20% of the jobs in the Coastal Security Police for skilled fishermen from the region. Since it was an interactive program, there were a lot of open discussions, town hall-style. Participants pointed out to the minister that the fisheries are a part of the Agri sector and should get similar facilities like farmers to get through their kissan cards. They said the same should be issued to fishermen too. The Minister was open to the idea and said the proposal would be discussed with the lead bank manager, director of the fisheries department, officials concerned and the chief minister.
The minister also said that a decision to make QR Code-based Adhar cards mandatory for the fishermen has been taken and that the department will soon issue circular on this issue. He said that possessing or QR Code biometric cards is compulsory for putting together information about the safety of fishermen and other information about them. He said that the matter of providing these cards through Seva Sindhu websites or the respective fisheries departments is under consideration.
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who inaugurated the program, was of the opinion that these types of interactive programs helped in formulating policy and said that after pooling in opinions and suggestions from the fishermen community and experts a plan could be formulated to achieve financial and social progress of the fishing sector.
Joint director in the fisheries department, Brahmachari, said that there are 3.28 fishermen in coastal Karnataka and 1.57 lac among them are active. He also mentioned that there are eight fishing ports, 26 fishing jetties, 18 fisheries cooperative societies, one fisheries development corporation, and two fisheries marketing federations. “There are 4,585 mechanized fishing boats, 9,362 motorized boats, and 9,097 country boats on the coast,” he stated.
The Superintendent of police of Coastal Security Force, Chetan, said that the color-coding system has been brought into force for the boats. He said that if there are problems in this matter, the fishermen together can submit a memorandum, based on which further steps would be taken.
Zilla panchayat president Meenakshi Shantigodu, Karwar MLA Roopali Naik, Kaup MLA Lalaji R Mendon, Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath, and fisheries director Ramakrishna, were also present at the meet.
