Marine fishermen of Chandrabhaga (Konark) and Puri Pentkota have been victimized by unscrupulous persons as they now have a burden of over Rs.48 crore as loan which they had not taken. According to sea fishermen leaders G Apana, G Gangana of Chandrabhaga and H Narayan and Suree of Puri Pentkota fishermen colony some unscrupulous persons on the pretext of providing poor fishermen bank loans had collected aadhar card, copy of bank pass book and other documents from innocent fishermen. They then took the loan from the bank producing fake papers.
The racket was operating since 2013 but the matter came to the light as about 412 fishermen of Chandrabhaga and 700 in Puri were recently served recovery notices by Canara, UCO, SBI and Gramya Banks. The innocent fishermen ignored the notice stating that they had not taken any loan. The bank has blocked their savings account and threatened to initiate recovery proceedings against them, the fishermen leaders said. . “We have met the marine fisheries officer, collector, Puri and vigilance department in this regard a number of times and handed them the memorandum to conduct a thorough probe into it and take legal actions against the culprits,” the fishermen leaders said.
They have also filed complaints with the chief minister, the director vigilance,the director of marine fishery,the director general state crime branch for investigation to unearth the racket which has put poor fishermen in a tight position besides siphoning of crores of rupees government money. The subsidised fishing equipment like boat, engine, fishing net are fraudulently siphoned by a handful persons in a systematic way to other states ,they alleged.
The subsidised boat engines which are meant for fishermen of Odisha are secretly transported to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh by the dealer of engines. Surprisingly no action either by marine fishery or vigilance department and collector is taken, the fishermen leader lamented. On July 26 last the enforcement squad of the Puri commercial tax seized nine new boat engines while being transported to outside the district by a truck.
According to Patra, the enforcement officer, our squad intercepted a truck at Sukal check gate along the Jagannath Sarak on July 26 night. As the driver could not produce any document,the truck was detained and the nine new engines were seized. The victim fishermen are up in arms and alleged that the subsidised engines were secretly sent to Andhra Pradesh for sale and demanded stern action against the culprits.