“The central government released 3000 KL of kerosene to the country boats of three districts of the Karnataka coast on November 2. So far, the kerosene has not been adequately supplied to the Country boat fishermen. If the state government fails to supply kerosene within the next 15 days, a statewide protest will be held”, warned the President of Karnataka State Country Boat Fishermen Union, Anand Kharvi.
Addressing the protesters, Anand Kharvi said, “When subsidized Kerosene was not released by the central government, it was the duty of the state government to find a permanent solution. The state government should purchase industrial kerosene and supply it regularly to the Country boat fishermen at subsidized rates”.
Kharvi further said, “Due to natural calamities in some parts of the state, Country Boat Fishermen have suffered huge losses. Considering this as a special case, the government should give maximum compensation. He demanded that the state government should earmark more than 250 crores for the development of traditional fishermen in the next budget.
Former Byndoor MLA Gopal Poojary said, “Even though there is fish in the sea, Country boat fishermen cannot fish without kerosene. The Central and state government should jointly provide Kerosene to the fishermen by allocating funds for kerosene in the budget. If the state government fails to provide kerosene every month, we will hold a massive protest in the coming days”.
Earlier, thousands of fishermen took out a Jatha from MGM college to the DC office and later submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through the deputy commissioner. Additional DC Veena accepted the memorandum.
Former MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake, Karnataka State Country boat fishermen union secretary Gopal R K, leaders Ramachandra Kharvi, Madan Kumar, Congress leader Ramesh Kanchan and others were present.